English: The leading portrait painter of his age, Sir William Orpen, an Irishman, painted a number of Canadian generals. A majority of the works retain an unfinished appearance because, as he wrote: "They were really done as studies for a big portrait group of General Currie and other Canadian heroes." Beaverbrook arranged for Orpen to paint several Canadian generals, in Paris in early 1918. These portraits were to be the basis for a group of the four Canadian Divisional Commanders with Currie. Currie wrote to Beaverbrook in January 1918, suggesting that Orpen's group would have more historical value if five more officers of his Headquarters Staff could be added to it. Beaverbrook replied that if Orpen had not yet started he would be told to add the extra five. Currie sat for his portrait in his rooms at the Ritz Hotel in Paris during the opening of the Peace Conference early in 1919. He never liked the result and, in 1924, requested that the painting be removed from an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada."