'Challenged' (1865), it evoked in the French art public an admiration which his later work made lasting.
Every year now added to Orchardson's reputation. His drawing, always constructive and real, attained a more incisive elegance ; his sense of design grew thoroughly architectonic, especially in the use of blank spaces ; his colour lost its tendency to greyness and became, in M. Chesneau's happy phrase, 'as harmonious as the wrong side of an old tapestry' ; and his appreciation of character and dramatic situation acquired an absolute sureness. His technical equipment, if limited in certain directions, was eventually wellnigh perfect in its kind. Henceforth his subjects were divided into incidents in the comedy of manners (sometimes gay but more often grave, and usually touched with a deUcate irony) and incidents from the careers of the great. The situation was always an epitomised expression of the interplay of character and circumstance rather than a rendering of a particular event, and the effect was highly dramatic. The first of his social pieces, 'The Social Eddy: Left by the Tide' (1878), was followed a year later by the intensely dramatic 'Hard Hit,' one of his most notable achievements. In 1880 'Napoleon on board the Bellerophon' — purchased by the Chantrey Trustees — made a deep and enduring impression and became through engravings perhaps the most widely known of his works. Other themes from French manners or history were 'Voltaire' (1883), 'The Salon of Madame Recamier' (1885), 'The Young Duke' (1889), and 'St. Helena, 1816 ; Napoleon dictating the Account of his Campaigns' (1892). With these may be grouped the dramatically conceived and coloured 'Borgia' (1902), and some hghter pieces such as 'A Tender Chord' (1886), 'If Music be the Food of Love' (1890), and 'Rivalry' (1897), in which the actors wear the costume of the past. During this period the artist also presented with poignant feeling domestic drama in modern clothes and surroundings. Notable examples of such work are the 'Mariage de Convenance' series (1884 and 1886), 'The First Cloud' (1887), 'Her Mother's Voice' (1888), and 'Trouble' (1898).
At the same time Orchardson's insight into character, subtlety of draughtsmanship, and distinction of design made him a fascinating portrait painter. The more important of his portraits belong to the last three decades of his career, and during his latest years he painted little else. The charming portrait of Mrs. Orchardson (1875); the 'Master Baby'—the artist's wife and child (1886) ; the spirited rendering of himself standing before Ms easel, painted for the Uffizi in 1890 ; 'Sir Walter Gilbey' (1891); and 'H. B. Ferguson, Esq.' in the Dundee Gallery are splendid proofs of his skill in portraiture. Save 'Master Baby,' these were all three-quarter lengths ; but the full lengths of 'Sir David Stewart' (1896), in his robes as lord provost of Aberdeen, and of 'Lord Peel' (1898), when speaker of the House of Commons, are hardly less effective. Later portraits like 'Sir Samuel Montagu' (1904) and 'Howard Coles, Esq.' (1905) were often only of the head and shoulders, but if rather weaker and thinner in handling than earlier efforts they revealed an even subtler apprehension of character.
After his marriage in (1873 Orchardson lived successively at Hyndford House, Brompton Road, at 1 Lansdowne Road, Notting Hill, and at 2 Spencer Street, Victoria, and in 1888 or 1889 he settled finally at 13 Portland Place, where he built a splendid studio. For some twenty years from 1877 he had also a country house, Ivyside, at Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, where he built another studio, in which some of his most famous pictures were painted. After 1897 he occupied Hawley House, Dartford, Kent.
Besides honorary membership of the Royal Scottish Academy, which was conferred on him in 1871, Orchardson received many honours from foreign art societies. He was made a D.C.L. of Oxford in 1890, and in 1907 he was knighted. He died at 13 Portland Place, London, on 13 April 1910. Only a fortnight before he had completed, with an effort, the portrait of Lord Blyth, which appeared in the Academy after his death. He was buried at Westgate-on-Sea.
Orchardson married on 8 April 1873, at St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, Ellen, daughter of Charles Moxon of London ; she survived him with four sons and two daughters, and was granted a civil list pension of 80l. in 1912. The eldest son, Mr. C. M. Q. Orchardson, is an artist.
Of distinguished appearance, if of slight physique, Orchardson was very active and lithe. In early life he hunted, and at Westgate he became a devotee of tennis, for which he had an open court built. He was also a keen angler, especially with the dry fly, and latterly took to golf. Indoors he played billiards and talked with penetrating insight. Apart from the portrait of himself in the Uffizi, there are others by Tom
