Lot 13: Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) THE HIGH CHAIR (VIOLET STOCKLEY, AGED ONE YEAR, EIGHT MONTHS), 1894

signed and dated lower left; inscribed on RHA label on reverse

h:9 w:10.50in.

watercolour

'Memorial Exhibition', RHA, Dublin, 1903/1904, probably no. 164 as 'Baby' (lent by Mrs Osborne);
'An Exhibition of 18th, 19th & 20th Century Irish Paintings', Gorry Gallery, Dublin, 25 May to 6 June 1995, no. 5 (illustrated p.6)

Mrs Osborne;
Miss Violet Stockley (The Artist's Niece);
The Mallin Family;
Thence by descent;
with the Gorry Gallery, Dublin;
Private collection

In this slightly larger watercolour, Violet is shown seated in a wooden chair at a child's table in the Osborne's sitting or dining room, with furniture around her. Light enters from the left, lighting up her berry hair and her face, she looks out of the picture: not directly at the artist, but slightly to the right, perhaps at her grandmother or another figure behind? Violet wears a white bib over her navy-blue smock, and her hands hold a sheet of paper, which she has just been looking at or drawing on. Prior to painting the watercolour, Osborne made preparatory studies in pencil, for example, Violet at Play, and Violet Looking at a Book (NGI cat. no. 19, 228 and 19. 209). (1) These drawings and the present watercolour show Osborne's skill in portraying children, capturing their innocence and vulnerability. (2)
Violet's clothes are indicated fleetingly, but her fair hair and bonny face are shown clearly, lit up against the shadows. The surroundings and furniture are suggested with characteristic virtuosity: employing wet brushstrokes in the child's table, but drier marks on the green table top and pink curtain, suggesting that the artist may have scraped the paint, or used coloured chalks or pastels in some areas, to give texture. Some of the picture's edges are left unfinished, giving a fresh, Impressionistic quality. There is a delicate harmony in Osborne's use of colours. Notable are the delicately evoked mugs, pale blue with white handles, on the top of the press.
At a Child's Bedside, 1898, shows Violet aged five years, asleep in a metal-framed bed, watched over by a woman, perhaps her grandmother. The child has blond hair, and one hand is stretched out on her pillow, 'echoed' by the woman's hand which rests on the bed covering. Equally, the pink and white hues of the pillow can be seen again in the pink and white bedding at the bottom of the picture. The 'halo' effects around the woman's head shows the artist positioning the figure, while the still-life detail: bottles, flowers and a candle on the press, provide a note of calm. Osborne uses a gentle palette of greys, maroons, off-whites and pinks. To indicate the folds of the bed covering he employs pale, sweeping lines, his brushes probably loaded with water to leave slight edges to the marks, comparable to those in Osborne's classic watercolour The Dolls' School, 1900 (NGI.2535). At a Child's Bedside, along with a series of touching watercolours of children in the interiors that Osborne painted at the turn of the century, showing his mastery of the watercolour medium.
At a Child's Bedside was exhibited at the New English Arts Club, London in 1899; at the Water Colour Society of Ireland in 1901; and at Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Walter Osborne at the RHA, Dublin in 1903-1904, lent by the artist's mother. Later, in 1983, it was included in the large Osborne exhibition in the National Gallery of Ireland, curated by Jeanne Sheehy; and in an exhibition of Irish Art at the Gorry Gallery in 1995.

Dr Julian Campbell
August 2018

Acknowledgements: With thanks to James Gorry of the Gorry Gallery, for his assistance in research.

1. Illustrated in Adrian le Harivel, National Gallery of Ireland. Acquisitions 1984-1986, NGI 1986, p.62 and 59
2. Osborne's watercolour also has affinities with studies of children by 19th century Dutch artists J. Israels and H. Blommers.