Noll, Son of Oliver St John Gogarty – Orpen Print

Noll, Son of Oliver St John Gogarty (1913) – William Orpen

Oliver St John Gogarty commissioned this portrait in 1913, reportedly to mark his son Noll's recovery from appendicitis. Orpen painted the young boy standing on the dunes at Portmarnock Strand — the same stretch of coast where both families spent their summers.

Gogarty was one of the great figures of the Irish Literary Revival — surgeon, senator, playwright, wit, and the man who shared the Martello Tower at Sandycove with James Joyce in 1904. Joyce turned him into Buck Mulligan on the opening page of Ulysses. By 1913, when this was painted, Gogarty and Orpen were close friends, moving through the same world of writers, artists and politicians that defined the Revival at its height.

The painting is a portrait of a child, but it is also a portrait of that world — Dublin in the last quiet years before everything changed.

Sir William Orpen (1878-1931), born in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, trained at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin and the Slade School in London, becoming one of the most successful portrait painters of his generation. His work hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Sizes & Format

• 60 × 80 cm / 24 × 32″
• 30 × 40 cm / 12 × 16″
• 75 × 100 cm / 30 × 40″
• Available framed (black, white, wood) or unframed

Print & Frame Details

Archival matte paper, 250gsm (110lb), acid-free and FSC-certified — off-white, uncoated. Framed prints: solid oak or ash wood frame, 20mm thick, with shatterproof protective glazing. Ready to hang, hanging kit included. Unframed prints up to A4 ship flat; larger sizes ship rolled in a protective tube.

Free Worldwide Shipping

Framed prints are packed with protective corners and wrap, boxed with reinforced edges, and braced with internal supports for extra rigidity (max 3 frames per package). Every order ships free, made to order and delivered from the hub closest to you: Ireland 3–7 business days · UK 4–8 · USA 5–10 · Canada 6–12 · Australia 7–14.