William Orpen was a highly successful portrait painter with the New English Art Club; painting numerous members of Edwardian high society. Following the outbreak of World War I, and the death of his friend, the art collector Hugh Lane who died aboard the RMS Lusitania, he enlisted with the British Government as an official war artist on the Western Front. His works, which ranged from portraits of military officials to depictions of shell-shock, and war-torn landscapes, were received with great acclaim. As a result, he was selected to paint the Paris Peace Conference overseeing the end of the conflict.