Walter Frederick Osborne, RHA 1859 - 1903
Walter Osborne, RHA
(1859 - 1903)
"Portrait of a Lady wearing a Bonnet"
Pencil, 4¾” x 3¼”
(1859 - 1903)
"Portrait of a Lady wearing a Bonnet"
Pencil, 4¾” x 3¼”
Walter Osborne was born in Dublin in 1859, the son of a well-known animal painter, William Osborne (1823 - 1901). He studied at the Royal Hibernian Academy Schools in Dublin and at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. In 1881 he won the Taylor scholarship at the Royal Dublin Society, which allowed him to travel to Antwerp. There he enrolled at the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts and joined the Natuur (painting and drawing from life) class given by the animal painter Charles Verlat (1824 - 1890). In 1883 having completed his training, Osborne travelled to Brittany, by then a popular destination for painters wishing to paint en plein air. Osborne worked in the countryside around the towns of Pont Aven, Dinan and Quimperle. One of his best known paintings from this period is his famous Apple Gathering, Quimperlé, now in the National Gallery of Ireland. During this time he became friendly with many artists and was influenced especially by Jules Bastien - Lepage, the French painter who used a grey, even light in his paintings, and promoted the square brush technique, a technique where paint is laid down in blocks of colour with a flat square brush. Osborne was also influenced in his work by the English plein air painters, George Clausen and Stanhope Forbes.
On his return from France in 1884, Osborne spent most of the next few years in various English countryside towns. He worked in the open air continuing to paint the rural scenes, villages and cottage gardens that he had painted on the Continent. He spent the winter months in Ireland and showed annually at the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition, where he also became an influential teacher. In 1883 he was elected an associate of the RHA and in 1886 he became a full member. He then settled in Dublin where he assumed responsibility for the upbringing of his niece, Violet Osborne, who on the death of her mother in childbirth was sent from Canada to Ireland to be reared by her grandparents. He continued to paint outdoors in and around Dublin, but these works proved difficult to sell and so he entered the more lucrative area of portrait painting, where he was very successful. He continued to exhibit at the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition in Dublin, and at the Royal Academy exhibitions in London, where his work was always popular. His later paintings show an "impressionistic" influence where his usual dark tonality gave way to brighter colours and an increased interest in the effects of sunlight and shadows.
In 1900 for reasons unknown he refused the offer of a knighthood. His career ended quite tragically in 1903, when aged only forty four, he died of pneumonia. It is with some justification that his unsentimental atmospheric paintings with their popular charm earned him the title of "the Irish Impressionist".
On his return from France in 1884, Osborne spent most of the next few years in various English countryside towns. He worked in the open air continuing to paint the rural scenes, villages and cottage gardens that he had painted on the Continent. He spent the winter months in Ireland and showed annually at the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition, where he also became an influential teacher. In 1883 he was elected an associate of the RHA and in 1886 he became a full member. He then settled in Dublin where he assumed responsibility for the upbringing of his niece, Violet Osborne, who on the death of her mother in childbirth was sent from Canada to Ireland to be reared by her grandparents. He continued to paint outdoors in and around Dublin, but these works proved difficult to sell and so he entered the more lucrative area of portrait painting, where he was very successful. He continued to exhibit at the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition in Dublin, and at the Royal Academy exhibitions in London, where his work was always popular. His later paintings show an "impressionistic" influence where his usual dark tonality gave way to brighter colours and an increased interest in the effects of sunlight and shadows.
In 1900 for reasons unknown he refused the offer of a knighthood. His career ended quite tragically in 1903, when aged only forty four, he died of pneumonia. It is with some justification that his unsentimental atmospheric paintings with their popular charm earned him the title of "the Irish Impressionist".