Walter Osborne signed, Irish children sharing food, oil on canvas, signed L/L, 24" x 18", framed 27" x 21". Some paint loss. Provenance: Winchester, Massachusetts collection.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) Beached Rowing Boat and Figures by the Shore Oil on board, 25 x 21cm (9¾ x 8¼'') Provenance: Sale, Adam's, 16 June 1993, Lot 69, where purchased by the late Gillian Bowler. Her sale, these rooms 30/5/18, lot 31. Walter Osborne's picture depicts a sloping, high river bank upon which small rowing boats are moored. Just over the brow is a large pavilion-like building with steep roof, tall chimneys and masts. On the left, a figure in hat and white smock stands silhouetted against the sky, while in the right foreground another man in white sits in his boat, moored below the steps which climb the banks. The smooth water below reflects the boat and river bank, complementing the dark shape of the building above. Osborne's scene is viewed against the light, so the tone of the picture is subdued. Yet a quiet sense of mystery is evoked, the two men conversing with one another perhaps, or lost in their own thoughts. Osborne's scene has echoes of small, intimate pictures of heath or quarries by earlier landscapists such as John Crome and William Mulready. Osborne spent much of the period 1884 to c.1891 painting in English villages and coastal towns in the summer months. The setting of the present picture is probably at Rye in East Sussex. Rye had been an old fortified town on the river Rother on the Sussex coast and became one of the 'Cinque ports'. But in the 16th century the harbour began to silt up, so that the town became situated two miles inland. The Flemish portraitist Anthony Van Dyck painted beautiful watercolours there c.1633. Osborne was working in Rye c.1889-1890, and was inspired to paint some of his finest paintings there. These include 'Cherry Ripe', c.1889 (Ulster Museum); 'The Ferry'; 'When the Boats Come In'; small oil studies such as 'On the Quay at Rye, 1889 and the present picture; and the wash painting 'Boats in Rye Harbour' (National Gallery of Ireland); and he also took photographs there (NGI). English villages provided Osborne with interesting subject matter and also inspired a new palette in his paintings, the warm russets, oranges and maroon colours of brickwork and roof tiles, the browns of old woodwork, often being lit up by lovely sunlight. In the present scene, which is observed against the light, the tones, dark maroons, plum colours, raw siennas (lighter at the top of the bank) and dark blues, are more subdued. But the sky is bright, covered by light cloud and with touches of blue sky breaking through. Osborne's brushwork is light but expressive. On the riverbank, for example, changes in direction are visible as his brush moves quickly over the picture surface, while in the clouds fluid, horizontal brush marks can be seen, creating blurred edges where the building meets the sky. Osborne's painting belonged in the collection of Gillian Bowler, founder of Budget Travel. A very similar subject was exhibited at the Dublin Art Club in 1890. Julian Campbell 1) 'The Ferry', Important Irish Art, de Vere's, Dublin, 27th November 2013, Lot 39. 2) 'When the Boats Come In', 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art, Bonhams, London, 1st March 2017, Lot 62. 3) 'On the Quay at Rye', 1889, Irish Sale, Sotheby's, London, 18th May 2001, Lot 165 - this was a gift from Osborne to fellow painter Blandford Fletcher.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859 - 1903) Sheep in a Field Oil on canvas, 36 x 47cm (14¼ x 18½) Signed lower left Provenance: Sarah Purser; Sean Purser thence by descent to the present owners. Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, cat. no. 189, p.122-123 In Osbornes painting a flock of black-faced sheep are shown grazing in a field. In the foreground is a trough and wicker fence, while behind is a flat landscape and hazy blue sky. The artistspent much of the late 1880s in England painting village subjects, landscapes and farming scenes. He was enamoured with the subject of sheepand painted many pictures of flocks, sometimes with the shepherd present. In 1885 he painted small panels of sheep in a pen on sunny days, probably in Hampshire. One delightful picture The Sheepfold, for example, shows a small flock in a paddock, one black-faced sheep in the foreground looking at us with curiousity. (1) One of Osbornes best known pastoral scenes Counting the Flock, (sold in these rooms 30 May 2018), shows a shepherd with dog and sheep in a flat landscape.(2) Osborne painted further sheep subjects in Berkshire c. 1887-1888. The present picture Sheep in a Field, c.1888, shows a small flock of black-faced animals grazing or resting in a pasture, one of them close to the viewer. Like his father, animal painter William Osborne, Walter has a profound empathy for his animal subjects. He captures well the woolly coats and calm demeanour of the sheep. Two rooks or carrion crows are shown pecking at the earth. In the right foreground are a water trough and latticed wattle fence, the latter painted with such skillful realism that we almost feel we can touch it. In the distance is a landscape with small woods, and a flat horizon with hazy blue sky with clouds. The burnished tones that the artist employs: browns, bottle greens and beiges, give the painting a warm rural feeling. It is a surprise then to see an embankment with railway line and telegraph poles cutting horizontally across the landscape behind the sheep in the middle distance. This seems like an intrusion upon the quiet, pastoral scene, (and adds an understated modern dimension to the picture). Yet Osborne himself loved to travel by train, and was engaged with contemporary life, as well as being a lover of nature and tradition. Sheep in a Field has never appeared on the market previously, having remained in the same family collection for over a hundred years. It was acquired by Sarah Purser, a relative and fellow painter of Osbornes, and was displayed in her home, Mespil House, in Dublin. Subsequently it passed down through the family by descent. Julian Campbell, April 2024 J.Sheehy, Walter Osborne, NGI, 1983, cat.no.22, illustrated. Counting the Flock, in Important Irish Art, Adams, 30 May 2018, lot 32
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859 - 1903) Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé (1883) Oil on canvas 40.6 x 31.8cm (16 x 12 ½ ) Signed, inscribed and dated 1883 Provenance: By descent from the owners great grandmother, who was a friend of the painter. Exhibited: Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1884, cat no 256; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, The Irish Impressionists, Irish Artists in France and Belgium, 1850 1914, Oct/Nov 1984, cat no 69; Belfast, The Ulster Museum, The Irish Impressionists, Irish Artists in France and Belgium, 1850 1914, Feb/Mar 1985, cat no 69. Limerick, The Hunt Museum, Lavery and Osborne: Observing Life, May 2019 Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton 1974, no 71; J. Sheehy, Walter Osborne in Quimper (sic) and Pont Aven, 1883, in Old Limerick Journal, vol.25, summer 1989, p.28, illustrated; K. McConkey, Early Morning in the Markets in Lavery & Osborne, Observing Life, 2019, p.84-85, illustrated; Dr Julian Campbell, The Irish Impressionists, Irish Artists in France and Belgium, 1850 1914, NGI, p.212 Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé is an attractive Continental street scene such as Walter Osborne loved to paint. It shows several Breton figures at a small market, with a colourful display of vegetables, in Quimperlé on a sunny day. After completing his studies in Antwerp in 1883 Osborne headed south west to Brittany to paint en plein air. He worked in Dinan, Pont Aven and at Quimperlé, often together with fellow former students from Ireland and England. Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé, set in the lower part of Quimperlé, is a companion piece to Osbornes best-known Breton painting Apple Gathering, Quimperlé, 1883, (NGI), set in the upper town, both pictures featuring a church, and both being inscribed Quimperlé. Quimperlé had developed around the confluence of the rivers Elle and Isole, which combined to form the river Laita. The church of Ste-Croix was founded in the 12th century, based on the plan of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. It was famous for its magnificent apse, and became one of the most important spiritual centres in Brittany.(1) In the upper part of the town, the church of St Michel, Notre Dame de lAssomption dated from the 13th and 15th centuries. Quimperlé was a peaceful Finistère town, with a wooded river valley, apple orchards and mild climate, narrow streets cutting down to the lower quarter, bridges, and old houses with gardens by the river. The arrival of the railway line in 1862 made the town much more accessible to visitors. The establishment of schools in the 1870s and 1880s encouraged the education of local girls and boys. (2) Although less well-known as an artists colony than Pont-Aven and Concarneau, Quimperlé had a thriving community of British and Irish painters there from the 1880s to the early 20th century, notably Stanhope Forbes, Henry La Thangue, George Clausen, Osborne, J.M.Kavanagh, Blandford Fletcher, Charlotte Benson and Norman Garstin, as well as Norwegian Fritz Thalow.(3) Forbes had moved to tranquil Quimperlé because Pont-Aven and Concarneau had become too crowded, and because studios were cheap. It is possible that Osborne may have done so for the same reasons. Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé features several figures: a girl and elderly woman, a boy, a woman shopping and a stall holder. The cheerful whites and blues of the Breton costumes and the green canopy in sunlight attract our attention. In the foreground a young girl and woman are seated behind a colourful array of vegetables, waiting for customers. The cheerful rosy-cheeked child contrasts with the elderly woman, whose headdress casts a shadow on her face. The woman at the stall with white bonnet and collar, faded garments and shopping basket, viewed from behind, is an archetypical Breton figure by Osborne. To her right is a boy in dark Breton hat, face in profile, and smock. Behind them the market woman stands under the green sunlit canopy; although in shadow, her face has a smiling Oriental calmness. The edge of another stall can be seen to the left, perhaps with another stall-holder present. Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé is set in front of the east door of the church of Ste-Croix. It is a fine example of Osbornes early Realism. He applies loving detail to every part of the picture not just to the figures, but to the freshly picked vegetables arranged along the pavement, the wickerwork baskets, earthenware jar and weighing scales, cobblestones and weathered stone and woodwork of the church, even to a few scattered cabbage leaves. The textured brushwork and variety of delicate colours: blues, beige, white, pinks, greens, russets and ochres, bring the surface of the canvas alive. Yet, together with the meticulous Realism, a narrative element is present: the theme of youth and age, the conversating piece between the woman at the stall and the youth looking on and reaching out his arm. The difference in postures suggest that Osborne may have based his figures on preliminary pencil drawings, then assembled them together in the painting. (4) Osborne rarely identified the location of his pictures, so the fact that he inscribed the name of Quimperlé on both Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé and Apple Gathering indicates the importance which he attached to these paintings. Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé was exhibited at the RHA in 1884 and has remained in the same Co Dublin family collection since, or almost since, the artists lifetime. Julian Campbell, April 2024 1. Emmanuelle Yhuel-Bertin, Quimperlé en Images, Quimperlé 2008, p.13 2. Quimperlé en Images, 2008, p.17 3. see: Michel Colardelle, Denise Delouche et al, La Route des Peintres en Cornouaille, Briec-de-L'Odet, 1997; C. Puget and J. Campbell, Peintres Irlandais en Bretagne, Musée de Pont-Aven, 1999; C. Puget and J. Campbell, Peintres Britanniques en Bretagne, Musée de Pont-Aven, 2004; and Andre Carion and Beatrice Rion, Les Peintres de Quimperlé, 1850 1950, 2004 4. Similar Breton women and a boy are featured in, for example, Osbornes Pont-Aven painting, Driving a Bargain, (sold in these rooms, May 2002), and in a small sketch, (Osbornes sketchbook, NGI, cat.no.19,201, p.21
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) BILLY oil on canvas signed lower left; titled upper left; with Jorgensen Fine Art label on reverse h:12 w:9 in. Provenance: Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin; Private collection
Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903) Giclee Print from the National Gallery of Ireland Art Prints. "A Cottage Garden" in gilt frame. Measures 2o"x27"x1". Weight 3 lbs 5 oz.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859 - 1903) A Sea Urchin (1886) Oil on board, 22 x 13cm (9 x 5½) Signed and dated 1886 Exhibited: Possibly Dublin Art Club, 1886, No. 17, entitled 'A Sea Urchin', £5 Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, Cat. No. 145 A small barefoot boy sits upon a rowing boat which is drawn up on a sloping beach. Behind is a wall and a cluster of red roofed houses. The scene is in shadow, but the gleaming light in the sky suggests that it may be daylight rather than dusk. The exact location of the picture is not known. From 1884 to the early nineties Walter Osborne painted in a number of English coastal villages including Southwold, Walberswick, Hastings and Rye. The setting here may be a riverside scene in Lincoln, or possibly Wells Next-the-Sea on the north Norfolk coast, which Osborne visited c.1885-1886. In earlier times this small town had been an important port, conducting a thriving trade with Holland. But the harbour had sifted up and Wells was now situated a mile inland, while still retaining its long quayside. Rowing boats are drawn up upon the beach, and a small ragged boy leans against the boat in the foreground. In his seaside pictures Osborne loved observing the children who hung around the harbour, assisted the fisherman, played games and told stories. The boy looks at the viewer with curiosity. Osborne notes details such as his red headwear, a rope, a mast or stick, a small group of people in front of the house and the tall brick chimneys with smoke rising. Osborne was inspired by sunlit landscapes, but he was also drawn to scenes in shadow where the tonality is muted and the figure is shown against the light. In this picture, a range of reds, umbers, Naples yellows, siennas and mauves is used. The distinctive vermilion red of the boys cap draws our eyes and provides a point of focus. Although small in scale the picture is executed with the same careful realist style such as in Osbornes larger paintings, each part lovingly painted with deft brushstrokes. A square-brush style is employed where the left edge of the boat meets the background, while the stony shingle in the foreground is conveyed with vigorous impasto, partially applied by a palette knife. The picture is painted on a small wooden panel, signed with the artists neat lettering, and dated 1886. It seems likely that this is the painting entitled A Sea Urchin which he exhibited at the first winter exhibition of the Dublin Art Club (of which Osborne was a founding member) in December 1886. The fact that he includes the letters RHA after his name is of great significance in that having just been elected a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in October, this may be the first occasion where he proudly included his title after his name. Julian Campbell, January 2023
19th Century Sketch on Paper by Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903). Depicting a man laying down. Pencil signed "For Ed - With Love and Respect". Has staining throughout. Measures 11.5" x 15.5" wide. All invoices must be paid within 24 hours of the sale. This auction is Local Pick Up or Shipping with the Local UPS Store in Monmouth Junction, NJ. Local pickups are at our Monmouth Junction location on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday ONLY! All pickups are by appointment only. Any condition issues will be listed in the description. Please read the terms for full information.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) SUNSHINE AND BLOSSOM, 1885 oil on canvas signed and dated lower left; titled on labels on reverse h:14 w:18 in. Provenance: Private collection, Denmark Exhibited: Dublin Sketching Club, 1885, catalogue no. 244 Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, no. 126; A. le Harival and M. Wynne, Acquisitions 1984-1986, National Gallery of Ireland, 1986, p. 67 A boy stands in a meadow tending cattle, the trees in blossom, on a sunny spring day. Behind is a wall and a white-washed cottage with thatched roof, and a hazy blue sky. The scene is lit by a blond, pearly light, giving a mood of stillness and harmony. Sunshine and Blossom was painted in the English countryside, possibly in Hampshire in 1885. For much of the late 1880s and early 1890s Walter Osborne worked in a number of villages in England, painting many rural scenes, coastal subjects and landscapes, and producing some of his finest work. There his love for rural subjects deepened and his mature naturalistic style developed. Osborne had earlier painted a small orchard scene with farmhouse, A Sunny Morning, in Pont-Avon, Brittany in 1883. Now in Sunshine and Blossom he introduces a much fuller subject. A boy stands to the left of the tree, his figure half-hidden by long grass, tending four young brindled cows in the centre of the composition, one grazing another looking out at the viewer, while the cow approaching in the foreground is in shadow. The animals are framed by the trees, which form an arch, the branches and pink and white blossoms create complex but delicate patterns against the sky. The boy is an archetypal subject for Osborne. Such figures of country boys and girls, standing in the meadows or gardens, their clothes lit by sunlight, soft hats casting shadows upon their foreheads and perhaps holding a twig in their hands, appear in many pictures. The boy is attentive to the animals, yet also lost in reverie. Behind the wall is a long cottage with thatched roof, white-washed walls and low windows. To the left of the picture is a small gate, while at the right side there is a line of washing which gives a hint of human presence nearby. Osborne orchestrates all the elements of the painting into a harmonious whole, combining a careful naturalism with a gentle lyricism, to create a peaceful scene of rural life. Equal attention is given to each part of the picture. We note, for example the impastoed brushstrokes in the boy's white clothing, the square-brush style in the modelling of the trees, the vigorous brushwork in the meadow, flecked with delicate wild flowers, and, in contrast, the transparent blue shadows cast by the eaves of the thatched roof upon the white walls. Sunshine and Blossom is painted on canvas. Labels on the reverse - hand-written by Osborne - indicate the picture's title and the artist's address in Rathmines, County Dublin. The painting was exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club in 1885, priced £20. Osborne made a small pen and ink drawing after the painting (NGI, cat. no. 19, 201, p.3). He went on to execute many other rustic pictures, for example, Fast Falls the Eventide, 1888, showing a woman tending three cows in a meadow in front of a village. Sunshine and Blossom has not been seen in public in Ireland for many years, having been in a private collection in Denmark. Its appearance in Dublin is an exciting discovery, and sheds new light upon Osborne's rich oeuvre. Dr Julian Campbell, October 2022
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) SKETCH, GALWAY, 1893 oil on canvas laid on board signed and dated lower left; titled and with artist's name and provenance inscribed on original label on reverse; also with RHA exhibition label and Bregazzi & Sons [10 Merrion Row, Dublin] framing label on reverse h:7.25 w:10.75 in. Provenance: Collection of Miss Nelly O'Brien, 132 Stephen's Green, Dublin; Thence by family descent Exhibited: 'Exhibition of the Collected Works by the late Walter Osborne, R.H.A., 1903- 1904', RHA, Dublin, 17 June to 1 July 1935
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) Girl Sitting Selling Ducks Pencil, 15.5 x 25cm (6 x 9¾) Inscribed Provenance: Collection of Miss Violet Stockley, sale 'Trentham', Foxrock, Prof. Doyle, July 1977, where purchased; Collection of Antoinette & Patrick J. Murphy.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) A copy of Samuel Cooper’s miniature portrait of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, eldest son of King Charles II. The original is in the Royal Collections. Pencil, 14 x 11cm (5½ x 4¼'') Provenance: Collection of Miss Violet Stockley, sale 'Trentham', Foxrock, Prof. Doyle, July 1977, where purchased; Collection of Antoinette & Patrick J. Murphy
Walter Frederick Osborne (1859 -1903) The Pump of St Nicholas, Antwerp Oil on Canvas, 45 x 32cm (17¾ x 12½'') Signed 'F.W. Osborne' on the stretcher J.D. Spense Picture Frame Makers label verso. Provenance: Collection of Mr Hanna (of Fred Hanna's Bookshop) who purchased the painting from Orgel & Co. 35 Nassau Street, Dublin 2 in 1963. Exhibited: probably Royal Hibernia Academy 1883, no. 150, ' The Pump of St Nicholas, Antwerp', £10. Literature: Thomas Bodkin, Four Irish Landscape Painters, Dublin and London 1920, Appendix XI, p.117; Julian Campbell, Irish Students in Antwerp in the 19th Century, in Logan Sisley, ed. Eugeen Van Mieghem, Port Life, 2017, p.79. The Pump of St. Nicholas, Antwerp was one of the first open-air pictures that Walter Osborne painted on the Continent. It shows two girls fetching water at a pump, the statue of Nicholas seated above, careful attention given to every detail of the background. There are striking contrasts of sunshine and shadow, showing the artists joy in representing an everyday scene with figures in sunshine. Exhibited in Dublin in 1883 when Osborne was still a student, the painting introduced a dramatic new strand of realism into Irish art. Born in Dublin in 1859, the son of successful animal painter William Osborne, Walter first studied in Dublin, at the Metropolitan School of Art and the RHA Schools, then continued his studies in Antwerp. Along with contemporaries from Ireland and Britain, he was drawn towards the Academie Royale, Antwerp by the presence of realist painter Karl Verlat as Professor of Painting there, the cheap cost of living and the fact that some of the teachers spoke English. Antwerp was located almost ninety kilometres from the North Sea but, situated on the River Scheldt, was one of the busiest ports in Europe and the late 19th century saw a great revival of Flemish culture (2). Osborne and fellow students from Dublin, J.M. Kavanagh and Nathaniel Hill, arrived in Antwerp in autumn 1881. He entered Verlats life class. By 1882 he was already painting outdoor scenes in the little streets and courtyards near the cathedral. The Pump of St. Nicholas, with its statue on a tall column, was located in a square in the old city. St. Nicholas was one of the most popular of Christian saints, regarded as the patron of children, travellers and sailors and is the guardian of young women. Osborne features two girls near the pump, an older woman seated by a wall behind and considerable attention is given to the Flemish buildings and surroundings. The girl on the left is walking from the pump, carrying her green pitcher of water. The woman on the right appears to be looking back at her. Both figures are healthy-looking, wearing white bonnets, rough jackets, dresses or aprons and clogs. Osborne represents the background details and buildings: the statue, the metalwork pump handle, the old stone or plaster walls and roof tiles with equal care. He skilfully conveys the weathered surfaces with textured brushstrokes, the foreground cobbles, for instance, strikingly impastoed. His delight in observing details, such as pots of geraniums on the window sills, the letters estaminet (referring to an inn) on the wall, clothes on a washing line and the blue socks worn by the girls is also evident! Impastoed brushwork visible beneath the image of the right-hand girl suggests that her figure may have been added afterwards. The glimpse of blue sky above the rooftops and the white clouds, perhaps conveyed with a palette knife, give a sense of freedom from daily activity. A contemporary critic observed of such pictures: a certain blackness in the shadows characteristic of the Antwerp method (2). But there is a richness in the use of earthy tones and in Osbornes skill in painting and his affection for the young women, their faces lit up by sunlight. Remembering the happy times of his student days, the artist returned to Antwerp in 1894 and painted a study of St. Nicholas pump again (sold in these rooms, 25th March 1998), but in a more colourful, impressionistic style. Julian Campbell, August 2021 See Logan Sisley, ed., Eugeen Van Mieghem, Port Life, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, 2017. Dublin University Review, Illustrated Art Supplement, 1885, p.9.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859 - 1903) Her Garden (1891) Oil on panel, 35.5 x 25.5 cm (14 x 10) Signed Exhibited: Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin 1891, No. 224 Entitled Her Garden, £10-10 Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, Cat No. 300, p. 130; Adrian le Harival and Michael Wynne, National Gallery of Ireland, Acquisitions, 1984 - 1986, 1986, p. 68 Among Walter Osborne's favourite subjects were scenes of girls in gardens, (1), farmyards, orchards and courtyards, and boys in the landscape, village street or by the seashore, painted variously in Antwerp, Brittany, England and Ireland. The theme of the garden became immensely popular during the Impressionist period. (2) Painted in an English village in the middle of his career, the present picture of a girl in a garden belongs to this tradition, and is notable for its sunlit atmosphere and vivid colouring. Executed on a sturdy wooden panel, the picture was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1891, entitled Her Garden. Osborne recorded the painting in a small ink drawing for his sketchbook. In visits to England from the mid 1880's to the early nineties Osborne painted in a number of small towns and villages, working in the company of fellow artists. He painted many open-air scenes of villages, streets, gardens and farmyards, of farming subjects with people at work or relaxing, and of landscapes and coastal subjects. In the late eighties his careful Realist style gave way to a broader more colourful approach. This marked a response to a series of exceptionally sunny summers, to the vivid red brickwork and verdant surroundings of English villages, and to the influence of contemporaries, such as W. Blandford Fletcher, or the Impressionism of Philip Wilson Steer or John Singer Sargent. Painted in 1888 Her Garden is a companion picture to the larger canvas A Cottage Garden, (probably originally entitled Bachelor's Garden, 1888, NGI) which also features a profuse garden, a similar red brick farmhouse, and a figure: that of a bearded man standing in his doorway in the background. The present picture shows a girl in a cottage garden watering flowers on a sunny day. The back door and window of the cottage are open, suggesting contact between house and garden. As in many of his paintings, Osborne enjoys the interlocking lines and forms of walls, rooftops, doors and windows. In Her Garden the lower roofs have red tiles, while the main roof of the house is thatched. Osborne captures the glare of a summer's day, where sunshine falls upon the farmhouse, the roof, and much of the garden; and upon the straw hat, the lower part of the girl's face, and upon her shoulders. Although her figure is treated with generality rather than detail, and her hat overshadows her eyes, there is a feeling of contentment to her. Osborne made a tiny ink sketch after the painting. This was included in a sketchbook in which he recorded many of his pictures painted 1879-1893. This remained in a family collection, and was presented to the National Gallery of Ireland by Mrs Sophia Mallin in 1984(3). The drawing features the girl watering flowers in the garden, with the house behind. Slight differences between the sketch and the painting: the windows, the lack of the gabled house on the left in the sketch, the slope of the roof, upper right, and the angle of the tree, can be explained by the fact that this is not a preparatory drawing for the painting but is a sketch made afterwards, probably from memory. The fluid lines on the left, indicating the foliage, suggest that Osborne had represented the garden and flowers in a broader, more abstract way. Below the sketch Osborne has written the title, which may initially appear to be the word 'Hereforden', ie. suggesting that the girl is a native of Hereford. However, Adrian le Harival and Michael Wynne have correctly interpreted the inscription as Her Garden (4), the title of the painting which Osborne exhibited at the RHA in 1891. However, it is worth noting that the sketch is included on a page of other drawings of pictures painted in 1888-89, indicating that Her Garden was also painted in this period, and exhibited a couple of years later. Osborne was skilled at integrating the figures of children into the landscape, at work or resting. He often featured a girl in the foreground of his rural scenes, as for example in Apple Gathering, Quimperlé, 1883 (NGI), Feeding Chickens, 1884(5), Girl in a Garden (NGI) and Study from Nature (6). Girls wearing similar sturdy white straw hats and simple white dresses appear in several pictures of the period. There are several distinctive characteristics of Osborne's plein-air paintings of this period that appear in Her Garden. First is his skill at representing the hands of women and children, at work or at rest. This can be seen in Apple Gathering, Feeding Chickens, Potato Gathering (7), St Patrick's Close, 1887 (NGI), and Piping Times (Boy and Girl in a Garden) (8). Secondly, there is the representation of the tree trunk, employing a 'square-brush' style, and the section of bare wood near the bottom of the tree. Thirdly, there is the depiction of a cottage rooftop and section of blue sky above it, as, for instance, in Flemish Farmstead (9), A Sunny Morning in the Fields, Pont Aven, 1883 (included in the present sale), The Intruder, 1883 (10), The Farmyard, Brittany (11), and in the present picture, Her Garden. Within the relatively small picture Osborne employs a variety of colours, brushmarks and textures, to evoke the warm summer's atmosphere of the scene. Inspired by the vivid red of the brick houses and the verdant gardens of some English villages, a number of paintings of this period employed vibrant red, ochre and green tones. In Her Garden Osborne uses a variety of colours to create a warm, vibrant effect: pale pinks, browns and reds in the cottage, white in the piece of fabric in the garden, a glowing green in the garden, dappled whites, blues and pinks in the girl's dress, viridian, burgundy and blue-green in the flowers, and a pale blue in the strip of sky. Osborne's skill in observing subtle hues is seen for instance in the soft blues present in the shadows of the girl's dress and the wall behind her head, and in the strip of lilac below the roof. Osborne's use of varied brushmarks and textures convey the feeling of sunlight: upright brushstrokes in the thatched roof of the cottage and light green areas of the garden; lively strokes in the girl's dress and in the bush, upper right; a 'square-brush' style in the trunk of the small tree; and more varied marks in the flowers and grasses in the foreground. In the companion picture A Cottage Garden (NGI) mentioned above, Osborne similarly experiments with bolder marks and thicker paint to suggest the varied forms and textures of flowers and grasses. Infra-red examination of Her Garden has revealed the presence of the date '-88' below the signature, in the lower right-hand corner. This indicates that the picture was painted in 1888, and that Osborne retained it in his studio for three years before exhibiting it. He would have been aware of the Impressionistic garden scenes of J.S.Sargent exhibited in London in this period, and may have been stimulated to experiment with a more colourful Impressionistic style. Thus, Her Garden is an important transitional picture between the 1880s and nineties. Upon his return to Dublin, in his garden scenes Osborne pursued a more fluid style of painting, using thinner paint. During his career Osborne enjoyed making use of different surfaces for his paintings: canvases, light wood panels, millboards, and here a sturdy wooden panel with bevelled edges (12). On the reverse is a label by the Dublin art suppliers: from J.D.Spence, Printseller, Artists Colorman, Picture Frame Maker &c .7, Lower Sackville Street, Dublin. This is the same artist's suppliers at which Osborne purchased his sketchbooks. This present work was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1891, touchingly entitled Her Garden, and priced £10-10. The critic of The Irish Times, although he didn't make particular reference to the picture, made overall comments on the show which seem perfectly appropriate to Osborne's painting:The impression that .... the exhibition produces is one of vitality, brightness and life - of perfect truth to nature ... (13) Julian Campbell Notes: 1.See Margaret MacCurtain, Reflections on Walter Osborne's Study from Nature, in America's Eye: Irish Paintings from the Collection of Brian P. Burns, ed. By A.L.Dalsimer and V.Kreilkamp, Boston, 1996, p29-32 2.See eg J. Bumpus, Impressionist Gardens, London. 1990; The Garden in British Art, Tate, London and Ulster Museum, Belfast 2004-2005; and Clare Willsdon, Impressionist Gardens, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2010 3. NGI Cat. No. 19, 201, p.12, verso 4.Adrian Le Harival and Michael Wynne, NGI Acquisitions, 1984-86, NGI 1986, p.68 5.Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, NGI, 1983, P.70 6.Christina Kennedy, Walter Osborne's 'Study from Nature' in America's Eye, 1996, op. cit. P.121 7.J. Sheehy, op cit. P. 85 8. de Vere's, 22 April 1998, lot 40 9. de Vere's, 25 November 2003, lot 50 10.Irish Sale, Christies, 21 May 1997, lot 150 11.Adam's, 8 December 2009, lot 59 12.Osborne made use of similar wood panels with bevelled edges in some of his Connemara pictures in the 1890s. 13.Irish Times, 7 March 1891 Starting Bid: 56000
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) SKETCHES OF TWO WOMEN, 1886/87 (A PAIR) pencil; (2) (framed together) both dated lower left h:6.25 w:4.50 in. With a copy of a letter from Homan Potterton, Director of The National Gallery of Ireland attributing the works to Walter Osborne. The previous owner thought the sitters to be the artist's mother, Annie Jane Osborne and a friend of the artist, Betty Webb.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) Loiterers (1888) Oil on panel, 35.5 x 25.4cm (14 x 10'') Signed and dated (18)'88 Exhibited: Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin 1889, Catalogue No.220; Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, undated; 'The Irish Revival', Pyms Gallery, London May/June 1982, Catalogue No.2, colour illustration; 'Walter Osborne', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin November/December 1983, Catalogue No.27, illustrated; 'Walter Osborne', Ulster Museum, Belfast January/February 1984, Catalogue No.27. Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, 'Walter Osborne', Ballycotton 1974, Catalogue No.220. In his painting Loiterers Walter Osborne shows an encounter between three people in a village street, with a pair of horses and a dog, and a hilly landscape behind lit by rosy evening sunlight. A realistic scene, the painting has a particular lyricism and warmth of colour. The boy in the foreground, holding a stick, sheepdog by his side, pauses to observe the man seated upon a white horse and a standing woman who are chatting. Each figure wears the plain clothing of English country people, the boy for instance, in a white smock. But each has distinctive head ware: the man a conical straw hat, the woman a bonnet, and the boy a deerstalker cap. In the background are thatched cottages and a small cart, while a basket and cloth has been left on the grassy verge on the right. The foreground is in shadow, but a strip of sunlight falls across the road, and beautiful sunlight also lights up the chimney stacks, tops of the roofs and hedge, and the hat of the mounted figure, while the hills behind and two clouds are illuminated by a warm, roseate light. The picture is dated 1888; in this period Osborne was working in Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, often in the company of fellow-artists, such as Blandford Fletcher, and painting some of the finest pictures of his career. He painted in villages along the rivers Kennett and Thames, and he visited that part of the English countryside which lies to the north and south of the Berkshire Downs, (J. Sheehy, 1974, p.22). Loiterers may be set in Uffington or near Newbury. Osborne admired the rustic styles of village buildings, for example, the cottages with steep thatched roofs or stepped gables, small windows and red brick chimneys. The diagonal roofs to the right add a dynamic energy to the composition. In spite of its title, the people in the picture are not 'loitering' but relaxing, perhaps exchanging news after a day's work in the fields. In many pictures Osborne presented such people in the village street, stopping to talk, or simply observing the scene. He often used pencil studies from his sketchbooks, or juxtaposed figures from other pictures, to create interesting ensembles of local characters. For example, the figure of a boy in the foreground, viewed from behind and looking into the picture, becomes an archetypical image in several works. The woman, the boy in his smock, and the patient white and black plough horses also appear in a contemporary picture The Lock Gate, while a faithful sheepdog is present in several of Osborne paintings. The woman in the bonnet is also a familiar figure from many of Fletcher's Village scenes. The cottages and the landscape behind, the Downs and clouds, lit by beautiful evening light, are as much characters of the picture as the human figures. As Simon Jenkins writes : There is a gently rolling quality to the Berkshire chalk lands... The curves are more enfolding, the slopes more wooded... Yet they can still be wild and...mysterious. (England's 100 Best Views, 2019, p. 140.) If we look closely at Osborne's picture we see some surprising details: light paint is visible behind the boy, suggesting that his figure was added after the background was completed; and there are traces of pentimento on the grassy bank, where the figure of a seated woman may have been painted over. The picture is crisply executed yet Osborne's brushwork is lively, as for example in the 'blurred' treatment of the boy's smock, and the freely painted foreground and bank. Exquisite colouring is sprinkled throughout the picture, for example in the rosy clouds, the pale duck egg blue of the sky, and the touches of red in kerchiefs and chimney stacks. Loiterers is painted on a sturdy wood panel. Osborne made a lively ink drawing after the picture (sketchbook in NGI, cat. No. 19, 201, sheet 25), with a vignette of the boy and dog beside it, suggesting that he felt a special attachment to this painting. Acknowledgements: with grateful thanks to Anne Hodge, NGI, for assistance in research. Julian Campbell, September 2020.
WALTER OSBORNE (IRISH 1859-1903) Newbury Streetscape [recto] Sketch of Seated Man [verso], 1887 pencil on paper 22 x 13 cm (8 1/2 x 5 in.) [full sheet] dated lower left, titled lower center, signed lower right; illustrated bio of artist on verso PROVENANCE Carrickmines House, Foxrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, Including An Important Collection of Modern Irish Pictures, Christie’s and Edmiston’s LTD. Monday, 10 February 1986 at 11.00 a.m. and 7.00 pm (label on verso) William A. Smith, Inc. auctioneers and Appraisers, Plainfield, NH, sale 03781, lot 369 (label on verso) CONDITION N.B. All lots are sold in as-is condition at the time of sale. Please note that any condition statement regarding works of art is given as a courtesy to our clients in order to assist them in assessing the condition. The report is a genuine opinion held by Shapiro Auctions and should not be treated as a statement of fact. The absence of a condition report or a photograph does not preclude the absence of defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Shapiro Auctions, LLC., including its consultants and agents, shall have no responsibility for any error or omission.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) Portrait of a Lady Wearing a Bonnet Pencil, 12 x 8cm (4¾ x 3'') Provenance: Ms. Violet Stockley (the artist's niece) to Sophia Mallin, thence by descent; sale DeVeres, September 2017; with Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) A Young Girl in a Village Oil on artist's board, 20.5 x 14.3cm (8 x 5½'') Provenance: With Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin. Walter Osborne's small painting of children in a village square on a sunny day is both characteristic of him, yet colourful and surprising, combining Naturalism with an evocative narrative content, a carefully controlled composition with a relaxed 'snapshot', almost 'cinematic' quality, and a contrast of strong sunlight and shadow. The figures, of the girl in the foreground, the boy with donkey or mule, and the silhouetted person behind, are sheltering from the heat of the day, and stand in deep shadow. As in several of Osborne's pictures, the little girl is viewed in profile or from behind, looking back at the other figures, creating a relationship with them, and inviting the viewer's interest. Are these children brother and sister, what sort of rural lives do they lead, and who is the figure in the background In contrast, the upper part of the picture, showing the square and farm buildings, is in bright sunlight. The contrast of bright light and deep shadow, the donkey and sun-baked square, and the hot reds and oranges, give the painting a slightly Spanish atmosphere. Yet the costumes of the children: girl with neat straw hat and bow, boy with hat and white shirt, and the brick buildings, barns and red-tiled roofs, indicate that the setting is in England. Osborne spent much of the period from 1884 to the early 1890's working in villages and in the countryside, and their street scenes, rural subjects with children and landscapes are among his finest paintings. In the present picture, the red brick buildings and high colouring are characteristic of his Berkshire paintings of c.1887/88, so it may date to this period. A diagonal line divides the shadowy foreground area from the sunny background. This is 'echoed' by the diagonals in the roofs which, together with horizontal lines, show the artist's love of blocked, interlocking shapes of buildings and walls. Equally typical is the little strip of trees and sky in the upper right corner of the picture, hinting at nature beyond. The colours of the buildings and square: reds, mauves, umbers, pale blues, pinks and oranges, glow with warmth. Certain colours are used in different parts of the picture, giving unity to the picture surface, in certain places, for instance in the girl's shoulder, and the sunny edge of a wall above the donkey's ear, Osborne employs a 'square-brush' style, while the pale blue walls and sky are brushed in more broadly. The picture is painted on millboard, a compressed pasteboard often used by Osborne and other Plein-air painters. Julian Campbell
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)ZaandamOil on canvas, 26.5 x 37cm (10½ x 14½'')Signed, inscribed and dated May 1901 indistinctly on the turned edge of the canvasProvenance: With Milmo-Penny Fine Art, Dublin 1991; Sotheby's London, The Irish Sale, 11/5/06, Lot 34; Private Collection.Exhibited: Milmo-Penny Fine Art, 'Exhibition of Irish Art', Dublin June 1991, No.14.A stream leads from the left-hand side of the composition, winding through flat landscape towards the horizon, beneath an overcast sky of wind-tossed clouds. On the left is a windmill, in the centre another windmill and on the right a low cottage or barn. The scene is set in Zaandam in The Netherlands.A keen traveller, Walter Osborne is better known for his village scenes with figures and landscapes painted in Belgium, Brittany, England and the West of Ireland. But, in the 1890s, he also visited Spain and The Netherlands, in the company of Walter Armstrong, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland.He visited Amsterdam in c.1894, painted in Zaandam in 1895, then travelled in Holland with Armstrong in 1896, painting a small number of watercolours and oils on these trips (1).Zaandam was a picturesque village in the Zaanstad region, about seven miles north of Amsterdam. In the seventeenth century it had become a centre for ship building. In 1797 it attracted an important visitor, the Russian Tzar, Peter the Great, who came to study shipbuilding. On several visits he stayed in a small wooden house. This was known as the Czaar Petershuisje and became a tourist attraction in the town (2).In the nineteenth century, Zaandam and its surroundings became a popular tourist area, attracted by its rows of brightly painted houses, masts and canals and its distinctive windmills, becoming known as La Chine dHollande, because of its slightly oriental appearance (3). The village attracted artists including French Impressionist Claude Monet in the 1870s, who painted a series of colourful pictures there.In his picture Zaandam, Osborne does not paint in the village but in the surrounding countryside. But the representation of windmills, cottages and masts on the horizon suggest that there is human presence nearby. The light is overcast, the sky filled with clouds, vigorously painted. Some of these, as well as one windmill, are reflected in the stream, lighting up part of the foreground. The moss green of the moor is rapidly painted so that the vigorous brushstrokes are visible. Osborne employs quite a rough-weave canvas, its grain showing through where the paint is thin. The pinkish tones in the left-hand horizon recur in the cloud in the centre of the sky.Much of his work of the 1890s is more impressionistic and light-filled. But Zaandam has affinities with the pictures of the painters of the Hague School, the great Dutch Realist landscapes of the mid-century, in its grey and green tones and subdued atmosphere, for example with Allotments near the Hague by Jacob Maris (Haags Gemeeentemuseum, the Hague), which also shows a canal winding into the landscape and a brooding, cloud-filled sky (4).Osbornes Zaandam may relate to a watercolour Near Zaandam, featuring a landscape with windmills, painted in 1895 (5). However, an inscription on the edge of the current canvas reads Walter Osborne Zaandam May 1901, suggesting that he may also have visited the village at this later date.Julian Campbell, September 2019See Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton 1974 and Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, National Gallery of Ireland 1983. Osbornes painting on the Canals, Amsterdam was exhibited at Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, 1894-95 (Sheehy, 1974, cast. No. 419). A watercolour Canal, Amsterdam was included in the Osborne Memorial Exhibition, 1903-1904.Martin Dunford and Jack Holland, Amsterdam, 1997, p.319.Amsterdam, 1997, p.319.Hague artists such as Maris, Gerard Bilders, Paul Gabriel and Jan Weissenbruch painted flat landscapes with canals and windmills with towns in the distance, but often included figures and animals in the foreground.Sheehy, 1974, cat. no.451.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)Market Sellers SketchPencil, 24 x 17cm (9½ x 6¾)Dated 1892 indistinctlyProvenance: Violet Stockley; Prof. Doyle 'Trentham', Foxrock, Contents Sale, July 1977.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)'Old Inn'Watercolour on card, 24.5 x 17cm (9.6 x 6.6) SignedWith a fragment of the original back panel board and an old label verso inscribed Old Inn / Walter Osborne / 1886 - His First Exhibited Watercolour / P.C Trench / 5 Fitzwilliam PlaceExhibited: Possibly, Dublin Art Club, 1886 as The Village Inn, cat. no. 126Julian Campbell has written : Having earlier studied in Dublin and Antwerp and painted in Brittany, Osborne spent much of the second half of the 1880s working in English villages and towns, painting a series of village, farming and coastal scenes. These are some of the finest pictures of his career. He painted much in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, for instance at Newbury, Uffington, Didcot and on the Downs. Osborne was inspired by the rich tones of English buildings that glowed warmly in the sunshine: reds and russets of brick walls, brown of timber and maroons of roof tiles, as well as ochre clay and verdant foliage.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)A Bit of Sutton Courtney - A Village by the ThamesOil on panel, 41 x 32cm (16 x 12½'')Signed; inscribed versoProvenance: The Rowley Gallery stamp verso, 87 Campden Street, Kensington Church Street, London, whence purchased in the 1920s; hence by descent.Exhibited: The Dublin Art Club, 1887, Catalogue No.129.Literature: Sheehy, Jeanne, 'Walter Osborne', Gifford & Craven, Ballycotton 1974, p.121, no.174; Bodkin, Thomas, 'Four Irish Landscape Painters', Dublin and London, 1920, Appendix XI, p.133; le Harival, Adrian and Michael Wynne, 'Acquisitions, 1984-86, National Gallery of Ireland', Dublin, 1986, p.68, illustrated fig.60b.(note: Osborne titled this picture with the spelling Sutton Courtney and this spelling will be used when referring to the painting. The correct spelling of the village is Sutton Courtenay.)Journeying along the river Thames, Cork-born artist Robert Gibbings wrote in 1940 that: Suttons Pool by Sutton Courtenay is a fairy world of falling waters. By moonlight it is a setting for the rarer moments in life. Gibbings did not linger in the village, leaving the last golden hours of evening to the boys fishing on the weirs (1).In 1887, Walter Osborne had stayed at Sutton Courtenay (then in Berkshire but today in Oxfordshire) and painted the present picture A Bit of Sutton Courtney, A Village by the Thames. It shows a boy leaning against a wooden railing, fishing, while across the river a woman stands and tall red buildings are lit by sunlight. Walter Osborne observes the scene meticulously and the picture has a wealth of detail and a strong human presence. In spite of its rural setting, the painting is aflame with warm, glowing reds and browns, almost unprecedented in Irish art at this time.Having earlier studied in Dublin and Antwerp and painted in Brittany, Osborne spent much of the second half of the 1880s working in English villages and towns, painting a series of village, farming and coastal scenes. These are some of the finest pictures of his career. He painted much in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, for instance at Newbury, Uffington, Didcot and on the Downs. Sometimes he had the company of fellow artist Blandford Fletcher and his friend from Dublin, writer Stephen Gwynn, was in nearby Oxford, 1882-1886, and was teaching at Bradfield School in 1888 (2).Sutton Courtenay was a tranquil and picturesque village just south of Abingdon and north of Didcot, situated in a curve in the river Thames. It had been settled by the Saxons, who built a causeway on the river. In the twelfth century, the village took the name of the Courtenay family, who lived in the manor (3). All Saints Church and other fine buildings date from later centuries (4). In the mid-19th century, many villagers were employed in the local paper mill and in domestic service. The most striking features of the village were the causeway and weirs that separated the millstream from the Sutton Pools and Osborne was attracted to the streams where boys fished.From his early days in Ireland, he had depicted several pictures of lads fishing in a stream or canal (5). In A Bit of Sutton Courtney, the figure is placed close to the viewer, leaning against a wooden fence. He holds a fishing rod and looks down at the river. He wears a kind of deer-stalker hat, white shirt and brown waistcoat. Sunshine falls upon his cheek and sleeve. His figure is viewed from behind and his legs are cut by the lower edge of the picture, suggesting a photographic influence. Across the river, a woman with hat and violet apron stands upon the river bank looking at the barge. Even though the figures are separated by the river, visual and, perhaps, emotional affinities between them are evoked - both looking down and both holding a rod or a stick.There is a wealth of detail in the scene: the rough grain of the sturdy wooden fence, with an upright post just visible behind the boy's legs; the reflections and ripples in the river and the little fishing float; the tall buildings with steep roofs, including the uneven structure of the barn and an old cart with large wheels. Although the sky in the background is overcast, here Osborne was inspired by the rich tones of English buildings that glowed warmly in the sunshine: reds and russets of brick walls, brown of timber and maroons of roof tiles, as well as ochre clay and verdant foliage. A Bit of Sutton Courtney is enlivened further by little points of colour; the mauve of the womans apron, reds, greens, blues, whites and yellows in the barge and reflected in the water; the stripes of the upright post; red in the boys cheek and pocket; the mauve patch on the railing; and the blue of the float.Equally, Osbornes brushwork is lively and varied: crisp and controlled in some areas, fluid and expressive in others. The square brush style is employed, for example, in parts of the boys clothing, the womans apron and the walls of the barn. Meanwhile, the ripples are painted in a softer, more lyrical way and parts of the foliage and undergrowth are more blurred, for instance, in the rough grass draped over the river bank.If we look closely at the painting, we notice an interesting detail: the impastoed brushstrokes that depict the fence are visible beneath the figure of the boy. This suggests that Osborne may have added him to the picture at a later date than the landscape. This was not an unusual practice amongst painters, such as Canaletto or Caspar Friedrich (6), but Osborne may have decided to include the figure to give a greater sense of focus, psychological interest and human warmth to his composition. The motif of the figure, viewed from behind, looking into the picture, the Rückenfigur of German Romanticism, can be seen in the paintings of Caspar Friedrich and in Realist pictures by François Bonvin, Henri de Braekeleer and Joseph M. Kavanagh. As in several Osborne pictures of the period, for instance Counting the Flock, 1887 (sold at Adams, 30th May 2018) (7), the figure viewed from behind is an individual, but also an archetype, engaging the viewer and adding a sense of mystery.A Bit of Sutton Courtney is painted on a wood panel and is signed lower right with the squared capital letters which the artist employed in this period. Osborne exhibited the picture at the Dublin Art Club (of which he was a co-founder), in 1887, modestly priced at twelve guineas. He made a tiny pencil drawing after the painting, the figure being outlined in ink (in sketchbook in NGI, catalogue number 19, 202, p.14).Sutton Courtenay continued to attract Irish and other artists and writers. John Lavery painted Asquith in an 1891 Elizabeth boat on the river in 1917 (Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane). George Orwell fished there as a boy. Francis S. Walker illustrated a book on the Thames in 1891 (8) and, as noted above, Robert Gibbings passed through Sutton Courtenay and wrote lyrically about it.I am very grateful to Niamh MacNally, Anne Hodge and Andrew Moore, National Gallery of Ireland; John Hutchinson; and Maria OMahony for assistance in my research.Julian Campbell, January 20191) Robert Gibbings, Sweet Thames Run Softly, London 1940, p.106.2) Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, NGI, 1983, p.77; and J. Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, p.22.3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Courtenay4) Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Berkshire, Penguin 1966, All Saints Church and the Norman Hall were built in the late 12th century, and the Abbey about 1300.5) Eg. A Glade in the Phoenix Park, exhibited RHA 1880.6) Canaletto seems to have painted the background of his Grand Canal series first, then added the figures afterwards. See also Joseph M. Kavanaggh, Sheep in a Snowy Field, 1895, where the horizon line is visible beneath the bodies of the sheep. (Exhibition of Irish Paintings and Sculptures, Gorry Gallery, Dublin 2018, no.50.)7) See Counting the Flock, 1887, Important Irish Art, Adams, 30th May 2018, lot 32; and Newbury, 1887; Joe the Swineherd, 1890; and The Railway Station, Hastings.8) William Senior, The Thames from Oxford to the Tower, with illustrations by Francis Sylvester Walker, London 1891.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)MoonriseOil on canvas, 50 x 68cm (19¾ x 26¾'')Signed and dated (18)'93Provenance: Adam's, Important Irish Art, 14th December 1994, Lot No.28.Exhibited: Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition 1894, No.113; London, Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, 1894, No.451.Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, 'Walter Osborne', Ballycotton 1974, Catalogue No.402, p.137; Thomas Bodkin, 'Four Irish Landscape Painters', Dublin and London 1920, Appendix XI, p.124, 137; Irish Independent, 12th March 1894 - Well treated picture of the Impressionist type.Moonrise is an interesting painting in Walter Osbornes oeuvre, in that it is a pure landscape, including sheep grazing, but lacking in human figures, and in the presence of a vivid moon rising in a clear blue sky - a contrast to the subdued palette of the earth. There is a reflective feeling for nature, reminiscent of the Barbizon school, particularly Charles Daubignys crepuscular scenes of shepherds with sheep and moons rising above the land(1) and Nathaniel Hones pastoral landscapes.The 1890s was an intensely busy but fulfilling period in Osbornes career, when he was undertaking official portraits of dignitaries and society ladies; painting more informal portraits of his family, such as At the Breakfast Table, 1894, and friends; representing genre scenes in the Dublin streets; painting landscapes around Dublin; making visits to Co. Galway; as well as helping to look after his family. He thus found solace in nature, painting in the open air in north Co. Dublin, where his friend, Hone, was depicting cattle or sheep in pastures near Malahide and Raheny and Joseph M. Kavanagh was painting sheep grazing in Fingal and in Foxrock, a few miles south of Dublin, where fellow landscapist J.B.S. McIllwain lived. Moonrise may be set near Foxrock, with its mixture of farmland and scrubby landscape. It is contemporary with some of Osbornes major Irish landscapes of the period, for example The Thornbush, 1893 and Milking Time, c.1893.Being the son of animal painter William Osborne, Walter had a real empathy for animals, both pets and farm animals, and he seemed to capture something of their true spirit. During the 1880s, he had painted a number of pictures of shepherds with their flocks of black-faced sheep in England, including The Sheepfold, 1885 and Counting the Flock, 1885 (sold in Adams, Important Irish Art, May 2018, Lot 32)(2). In England, the sheep were guarded by a shepherd, but in Moonrise they are untended, grazing freely in the rougher Irish landscape. With its pastures, hedges, trees, horizon line and large sky, its earthy tones of olive greens and browns and its free buttery brushstrokes, Moonrise is reminiscent of Hones scenes of pastures with cattle. With their dun-coloured fleeces, Osbornes sheep are carefully observed, but well integrated into the landscape. A notable feature of his sheep, and indeed animal paintings in general, is the way that one or two of the animals in the foreground might look out at the viewer with curiosity, thus engaging our interest - as if caught in a photograph, or based on a preparatory drawing by the artist.Some of Osbornes paintings show his interest in moonlight and starlight, for example in scenes observed in Rush, Galway and Roundstone. During the early 1890s, he observed the atmospheric scene of Rising Moon, Galway Harbour (Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane). Here, in Moonrise, he was moved by the sight of the moon rising in daylight, in a clear blue sky, and by the lit-up cloud beyond the horizon. The painting is contemporary with the early Celtic Twilight poems of W.B. Yeats and, although Osbornes emphasis was naturalistic rather than symbolic, his image of a bright, three-quarter, lozenge-shaped moon rising above the tranquil landscape and grazing sheep, is a romantic one, symbolising the seasonal regeneration of nature.Moonrise was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin in 1894 and then at the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, London in the same year.Julian Campbell, August 20181. Eg. Daubignys Return of the Flock, 1877 (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts).2. The Sheepfold, c.1885, illustrated in J. Sheehy, Walter Osborne, 1983, p.74, Catalogue No.22; Counting the Flock, 1885, Important Irish Art, Adams, May 2018, Lot 32. See also The Return of the Flock, 1885 and A Shepherd and His Flock, 1887 (Important Irish Art, Adams, 3rd December 2002, Lot 78).
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)Counting the Flock (c.1885/86)Oil on board, 33 x 40cm (13 x 15¾'')SignedProvenance: Given by the artist to Sarah Purser; by descent; Irish Sale, Christies, 19th May 2000, Lot 212 (mis-titled); Irish Sale, Christies, London, 15th May 2003, Lot 37 (mis-titled) where purchased by the current owner.Exhibited: Probably exhibited Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1886, No.161, £20; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition 1886, No.219, £15.Literature: Thomas Bodkin, Four Irish Landscape Painters, Dublin and London 1920, Appendix XI, p.119; Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974 , Catalogue No.138, page 120.A shepherd stands watching over his flock of sheep, at the edge of a flat landscape which stretches into the distance, beneath a magnificent sky of rolling clouds. The man wears a tall felt hat and a white coat. His hand rests a stick on the ground, and there is another staff crooked under his left arm. A faithful black dog with a collar sits upright at his heels, watching over the flock of black-faced sheep and waiting for his masters orders. The sheep are calm, some facing the shepherd or resting on the grass, while the majority of them are grazing. Being the son of animal painter William Osborne, the younger Osborne had a real understanding of animals and he observes the dog and sheep skilfully. The shepherds coat being the same off-white as the sheep, he is nearly one with his flock, creating a tranquil mood to the picture.He is standing in the left foreground, viewed from behind, inviting the viewer to look into the landscape. To the left, a shepherds or farm workers hut with wheels can be seen in the middle distance. A flight of seagulls rises into the air, suggesting some agricultural activity behind. The grassy plain stretches back to the horizon, where to the left there may be low buildings and to the right low hills. Yet, in contrast to the calm of the pastoral scene, much of the composition is dominated by the lively sky above. Like his fellow Irish landscapist, Nathaniel Hone, Osborne was fascinated by cloudscapes and changing skies. Here, clouds appear beyond the horizon and roll towards us, their upper parts white, their lower edges a pale pinkish-grey, with areas of a cheerful duck-egg blue sky above them, creating a summery mood.In the foreground, Osborne employs more subdued tones: light moss greens and browns, duns and off-whites, but a sprinkling of red flowers, perhaps poppies, provide joyous points of colour.Counting the Flock may be set in Hampshire or Berkshire, where Osborne was working c.1886. After he had studied in Dublin and Antwerp, and painted in Brittany, Osborne felt the need to live abroad further, and he spent much of the period 1884 to c.1891 in England, enjoying staying in small towns and villages with fellow painters, valuing an independence from his family and painting rural subjects and landscapes in the open air. He produced some of his finest works during this period.Osborne was fascinated by the flatness of the landscape and the rolling downs and attracted to landscapes with domestic or farm animals. He painted a number of scenes of shepherds with sheep, men ploughing with horses, a boy guarding pigs, girls feeding chickens and so on. Here, during the mid-eighties, he made several small studies on panels and larger pictures of sheep, for example the sunny Sheepfold Shepherd and his Sheep, 1887 and The Return of the Flock, 1885.The subject of shepherds with sheep was frequently depicted by 19th century artists. Counting the Flock belongs to the noble tradition of rustic naturalism, in which artists such as Jean-Francois Millet, Charles Jacque, Julien Dupré, Anton Mauve and George Clausen painted scenes of peasant figures with their flocks of sheep, goats or herds of cattle. In some French pictures, the guardian of the sheep is a shepherdess, but in Osbornes he is a man. As in several works by the artists friend Joseph M. Kavanagh, he is viewed from behind. He is standing still, watching over, or counting, his flock, looking into the landscape, or lost in thought. He is treated in an unsentimental, naturalistic manner. Indeed, with his hat and white coat, he is quite a modern figure, like a traveller about to embark upon a journey, a character in a play by Beckett - a kind of everyman.Counting the Flock3 is probably the painting of the same name which Osborne exhibited twice in 1886: at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin and at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpools Autumn Exhibition.Julian Campbell, April 2018(I am grateful to Niamh MacNally, National Gallery of Ireland, for assistance in my research).1) Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, p.28.2) The Sheepfold, c.1885, exhibited Walter Osborne, NGI 1983, No.22, catalogue by Jeanne Sheehy, illustrated p.74; and A Shepherd and His Flock, 1887, Sheehy, 1974, Catalogue No.152.3) Counting the Flock has often been mis-titled as The Return of the Flock. However, the latter picture (Sheehy, 1974, cat.no.128), shows a boy driving sheep through a village street.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)Beached Rowing Boat and Figures by the ShoreOil on board, 25 x 21cm (9¾ x 8¼'')Provenance: Sale, Adam's, 16 June 1993, Lot 69, where purchased by the late Gillian Bowler.Walter Osbornes picture depicts a sloping, high river bank upon which small rowing boats are moored. Just over the brow is a large pavilion-like building with steep roof, tall chimneys and masts. On the left, a figure in hat and white smock stands silhouetted against the sky, while in the right foreground another man in white sits in his boat, moored below the steps which climb the banks. The smooth water below reflects the boat and river bank, complementing the dark shape of the building above. Osbornes scene is viewed against the light, so the tone of the picture is subdued. Yet a quiet sense of mystery is evoked, the two men conversing with one another perhaps, or lost in their own thoughts. Osbornes scene has echoes of small, intimate pictures of heath or quarries by earlier landscapists such as John Crome and William Mulready.Osborne spent much of the period 1884 to c.1891 painting in English villages and coastal towns in the summer months. The setting of the present picture is probably at Rye in East Sussex.Rye had been an old fortified town on the river Rother on the Sussex coast and became one of the Cinque ports. But in the 16th century the harbour began to silt up, so that the town became situated two miles inland. The Flemish portraitist Anthony Van Dyck painted beautiful watercolours there c.1633. Osborne was working in Rye c.1889-1890, and was inspired to paint some of his finest paintings there. These include Cherry Ripe, c.1889 (Ulster Museum); The Ferry; When the Boats Come In; small oil studies such as On the Quay at Rye, 1889 and the present picture; and the wash painting Boats in Rye Harbour (National Gallery of Ireland); and he also took photographs there (NGI).English villages provided Osborne with interesting subject matter and also inspired a new palette in his paintings, the warm russets, oranges and maroon colours of brickwork and roof tiles, the browns of old woodwork, often being lit up by lovely sunlight. In the present scene, which is observed against the light, the tones, dark maroons, plum colours, raw siennas (lighter at the top of the bank) and dark blues, are more subdued. But the sky is bright, covered by light cloud and with touches of blue sky breaking through. Osbornes brushwork is light but expressive. On the riverbank, for example, changes in direction are visible as his brush moves quickly over the picture surface, while in the clouds fluid, horizontal brush marks can be seen, creating blurred edges where the building meets the sky.Osbornes painting belonged in the collection of Gillian Bowler, founder of Budget Travel. A very similar subject was exhibited at the Dublin Art Club in 1890.Julian Campbell, April 20181) The Ferry, Important Irish Art, de Veres, Dublin, 27th November 2013, Lot 39.2) When the Boats Come In, 19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art, Bonhams, London, 1st March 2017, Lot 62.3) On the Quay at Rye, 1889, Irish Sale, Sothebys, London, 18th May 2001, Lot 165 - this was a gift from Osborne to fellow painter Blandford Fletcher.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)A River Landscape with Buildings in the DistanceWatercolour, 12 x 16.5cm (4¾ x 6¾'')SignedProvenance: 'The Irish Sale', Christie's, London 8/12/2008, Lot 26.
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859-1903) A Street in Antwerp (1894) pencil drawing on paper signed, titled and dated '94 lower right h:25.50 w:18.25 cm. Provenance: Daniel Egan, Dublin (framing label verso); Private Collection A key figure in 19th century Irish art, Osborne studied in Antwerp where he delighted in documenting the intimate details of street life - women gossiping, carts unloading their wares, all against the backdrop of the magnificent Gothic Cathedral.
Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903) Irish. "A Dealer in Copper Utensils", Pencil Drawing, Inscribed with Title in Pencil, and Verso another Drawing "Old Windmill, Cairo" and Pencil Sketches of Two Gentlemen", 5.5" x 3.5".
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859-1903) Rags, Bones and Bottles oil on canvas signed and dated lower right 'WALTER OSBORNE '91' h:46 w:36 cm. Provenance: Sotheby's, London, Irish Art Sale, 9th May 2007, Lot 76; Private Collection Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1891, no 137; Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition, 1891, no. 262. Literature: 'The Royal Academy', The Northern Whig, 2 May 1891, p. 5; Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, 1974 (Ballycotton), p.130 (no.303); Eamonn Mallie ed., One Hundred Years of Irish Art, 2000 (Nicholson & Bass), p. 248 (illustrated p. 249).
