Walter Frederick Osborne (17 June 1859 – 24 April 1903) was an Irish
impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...
landscape and portrait painter, best known for his documentary depictions of late 19th century working class life. Most of his paintings are figurative and focus on women, children, the elderly, the poor, and the day-to-day life of ordinary people on Dublin streets, as well as series of rural scenes. He also produced city-scapes, which he painted from both sketches and photographs. A prolific artist, he produced oils,
watercolours
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
, and numerous pencil sketches.
Osborne's talent was evident as a young man and he traveled widely in his youth; studying at the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Antwerp. He became a member of the
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...
after an early showing. Later, he spent time in rural England and
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
, where he became acquainted with the style of the impressionists. Osborne produced works in oil, water-colour, pastel and pencil. His main source of income was portraiture, landscapes and depictions of animals, but he is today better known for his documentary depictions of Ireland's working class poor.
Osborne had an engaging, charismatic personality and was well thought of in a variety of social circles. He died from pneumonia at 43 years, before achieving his full potential. Today he is regarded as a major Irish artist.
Life
Early life
![Dublin Streets a Vendor of Books 1889](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Dublin_Streets_a_Vendor_of_Books_1889.jpeg)
Walter Osborne was born in
Rathmines
Rathmines () is an affluent inner suburb on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It lies three kilometres south of the city centre. It begins at the southern side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to t ...
, Dublin, the second of three sons of William Osborne, a successful animal painter who specialised in portraying horses and dogs for the then prosperous Irish landlords.
[Campbell, Julian.]
Walter Frederick Osborne, R.H.A. (1859-1903)
. Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
, 14 May 2004. Retrieved 20 May 2017 By the 1880s, many landlords had hit economic difficulties, and William had to focus on painting mostly dogs.
Walter learned from his father that there was money to be earned from painting animals, and he produced quite a few; including of children with their pets, notably his 1885 ''A New Arrival'', and a series of impressionistic works on cows. Yet, according to art historian Campbell, in these paintings, "Osborne eschews the overly sentimental or literary quality of much Victorian genre painting, and displays a more down-to-earth, realistic approach, and a mood of gentleness."
He was educated at Rathmines School and at the
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...
school.
[Boylan]
Success
![Walter Osborne In a Dublin Park, Light and Shade](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Walter_Osborne_In_a_Dublin_Park%2C_Light_and_Shade.jpg)
He won the Taylor Prize in 1881 and 1882, the highest student honour in Ireland of the time, while studying at the
Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, . He was influenced by the Flemish painter
Rubens, and the French realist, plein-air painter,
Jules Bastien-Lepage
Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that emerged from the later phase of the Realist movement.
His most famous work is his lan ...
, as well as
Berthe Morisot
Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.
In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...
.
[Walter Frederick Osborne (1859–1903)]
. visual-arts-cork.com. Retrieved 20 May 2017 In 1883, Osborne moved from Antwerp to
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
where he painted his famous ''Apple Gathering,
Quimperlé
Quimperlé (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.
Geography
Quimperlé is in the southeast of Finistère, 20 km to the west of Lorient and 44 km to the east of Quimper. Historically, it belon ...
'', now in the
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...
. Soon after, he moved to England where he worked alongside
Nathaniel Hill and
Augustus Burke at
Walberswick
Walberswick is a village and civil parish on the Suffolk coast in England. It is at the mouth of the River Blyth on the south side of the river. The town of Southwold lies to the north of the river and is the nearest town to Walberswick, around ...
. During his period he often returned to Dublin to make preparatory sketches for what became his most renowned series, of the everyday lives of the city's poor. Although highly regarded today, these documentary, street paintings were not commercially successful, and Osborne supplemented his income through portrait paintings of the middle class, which were not as artistically satisfying.
In 1886, he was elected to the Royal Hibernian Academy and received many commissions for portraits.
[Boylan] This was an important source of income, as he had no private means of his own. After his sister died he was involved in looking after her daughter, and his own parents became increasingly financially dependent on him.
In 1892, he returned to Ireland to live in the family residence, and he also kept a studio at No. 7
St. Stephen's Green. He spent a considerable amount of time painting outdoors, in Dublin around
St. Patrick's Cathedral or in the country.
He was well liked in social circles and counted the surgeon Sir Thornely Stoker, brother of
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...
, among his best friends.
Death
![Walter Osborne](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Walter_Osborne.jpg)
His mother became ill in the early 1900s, and Walter spend significant periods caring for her. In 1903, while gardening, he overheated himself and caught a
chill
In computing, CHILL (an acronym for CCITT High Level Language) is a procedural programming language designed for use in telecommunication switches (the hardware used inside telephone exchanges). The language is still used for legacy systems i ...
, which he neglected, and which developed into
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
. He died prematurely from the illness on April 24, 1903 at the age of 43. He is buried in
Mount Jerome Cemetery
Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest.
Mount or Mounts may also refer to:
Places
* Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England
* Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...
.
[Boylan]
Some critics have suggested that at the time of his death he was on the brink of his artistic maturity. His final work ''Tea in the Garden'', a fusion of naturalism and impressionism, remained unfinished at his death and is now in the collection of the
Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery
The Hugh Lane Gallery, officially Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its subsidiary, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House ...
in Dublin. Today his work is highly sought after by collectors.
Writing in 1943, and lamenting Osborne's early death, Stephen Gwynn wrote that he "never knew a man who seemed more likely than Walter Osborne to live to a happy and vigorous old age".
[Gwynn (1943), 463] His final work was ''"Tea in the Garden'', described as "a beautiful combination of naturalism and impressionism remained unfinished at his death".
Gallery
File:Walter Osborne A Grey Morning in a Breton Farmyard.jpg, ''A Grey Morning in a Breton Farmyard'', before 1884
File:Walter Osborne Milking Time.jpg, ''Milking Time''
File:Walter Osborne Galway Market Scene.jpg, ''Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
Market Scene''
File:Walter Osborne The Card Builders.jpg, ''The Card Builders''
File:Walter Osborne A New Arrival.jpg, ''A New Arrival
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes' ...
'', 1885
File:'A Backstreet in the Snow' by Walter Osborne.jpg, ''A Backstreet in the Snow, 1895
File:Walter Osborne ortrait of Mrs Chadwyck-Healy and her Daughter.jpg, Portrait of Mrs Chadwyck-Healy and her Daughter, 1901
File:Walter Osborne Summertime.jpg, ''Summertime'', 1901
References
Notes
Sources
*Boylan, Henry. ''A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition''. Dublin: Gill and MacMillan, 1998.
* Gwynn, Stephen. ''Walter Osborne and Ireland 1859-1903''. Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 32, No. 128, Dec., 1943
Irish Art Archive - Walter Frederick Osborne - Milmo-Penny Fine Art*"The Irish Impressionists, Irish Artists in France and Belgium 1850-1914". Julian Campbell. National Gallery of Ireland, 1984
A Dictionary of Irish Artists. Library Ireland, 1913
*
*
Bibliography
*Sheehy, Jeanne. ''Walter Osborne''. Town House, 1991
*Campbell, Julian. ''Walter Osborne in the west of Ireland'', Adam's, 2004
External links
(ArtCyclopedia)
(Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Walter
1859 births
1903 deaths
Irish Impressionist painters
19th-century Irish painters
Irish male painters
Painters from Dublin (city)
Walter Osborne
Walter Frederick Osborne (17 June 1859 – 24 April 1903) was an Irish impressionist and Post-Impressionism landscape and portrait painter, best known for his documentary depictions of late 19th century working class life. Most of his painti ...
Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni
Deaths from pneumonia in the Republic of Ireland
19th-century Irish male artists