Kieran O'Boyle
Head of Ireland & Northen Ireland
Lot 38
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA, ROI(Irish, 1859-1903)Portrait of a Boy 38 x 30.5 cm. (14 7/8 x 12 in.)
17 – 28 November 2023, 14:00 GMT
DublinSold for €23,040 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Kevin Gaines
Senior Client Liaison
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA, ROI (Irish, 1859-1903)
Portrait of a Boy
signed 'WALTER OSBORNE' (lower left)
oil on canvas
38 x 30.5 cm. (14 7/8 x 12 in.)
signed 'WALTER OSBORNE' (lower left)
oil on canvas
38 x 30.5 cm. (14 7/8 x 12 in.)
Footnotes
Provenance
Andrew Francis Dixon, Professor of Human Anatomy, Trinity College Dublin (1903-1936), from whom acquired by
His daughter, Dr Wyne, Dublin
Gifted to the parents of the present owner, circa 1980
Private collection, Scotland
Throughout his career, in portraits and genre scenes, children were among Walter Osborne's most testing subjects. They appear in the street and on the shore, as well as in humble interiors in works such as The Poachers, 1884, Primary Education, 1885-6 and Cupboard Love, 1885-6 (all Private Collections).
Although autograph, the present head of a boy, however, offers us with a puzzle and stands apart from other genre studies of children. Boys of school age in Ireland and England, following the education acts of the 1870s, were regularly shorn of long hair, as in Primary Education. Even in middle- and upper-class homes, long hair was relatively unusual (equally improbable would be to find the artist deliberately painting an educated child with widely open-necked shirt). Exceptions occurred with Roma children (Pavees in Ireland) and itinerant 'professional' models who might pose for religious or mythological subjects (there is evidence that such itinerant families of Hungarian origin were present in Dublin at the turn of the century and were employed as models by William Orpen).
There is no doubt that the sensitive handling of this boy's features can be compared with Osborne's other treatments of children from the mid-1880s onwards. At this point he adopted 'squared' upper case lettering for signing his work - that associated with the followers of Jules Bastien-Lepage. Like John Lavery and others, he was keen to capture a characteristic stance or facial expression. Just the kind of close observation and sympathetic handling we see in Portrait of a Boy.
Additional information
Bid now on these items
