Beschreibung:

Artist: Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859-1903) Title: The Parrott House, Dublin Zoo (c.1890) Signature: on the reverse, the support bears the pencilled inscription 'Mrs. Noel Guinness', and is stamped 'J. D. Spence, Artists' Colour Man, 7, Lower Sackville St., Dublin'. Medium: oil on canvas laid on board Size: 27.80 x 19cm (10.9 x 7.5in) Framed Size: 43.8 x 35cm (17.2 x 13.8in) Provenance: Collection of the Guinness family; Gorry Gallery, Dublin (label verso); Private Collection Exhibited: Gorry Gallery, Dublin a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} In Osborne's vibrant oil sketch, a man and a woman have entered a large aviary. Holding a bright red furled umbrella behind her back, and wearing a straw boater, the woman has turned to inspect reptiles in a glass tank. Silhouetted in the door of the aviary, the man has paused also, to look up at th... Read more Walter Frederick Osborne Lot 81 - 'The Parrott House, Dublin Zoo (c.1890)' Estimate: €15,000 - €25,000 In Osborne's vibrant oil sketch, a man and a woman have entered a large aviary. Holding a bright red furled umbrella behind her back, and wearing a straw boater, the woman has turned to inspect reptiles in a glass tank. Silhouetted in the door of the aviary, the man has paused also, to look up at the brightly coloured birds on their perches. Sunlight, filtering through the glass roof of the aviary, highlights the floor, with its large tray of straw set below the perches. The perches are suspended from the roof of the aviary by iron rods. Although the setting has not been confirmed, it is most likely Dublin Zoo, an institution founded in 1830 by the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland and located in the Phoenix Park. In 1876, Catherine Nesbitt, who lived at Leixlip House, contributed over three hundred pounds for the construction of a large aviary. Sited close to the Giraffe House and flanked by an aquarium and reptile house, the "Nesbitt Aviary" opened in 1877, providing an opportunity for visitors to see parrots and macaws at close quarters. It is likely that Osborne, who had returned to Ireland in the early 1890's, took the opportunity to visit the Aviary, and sketch its occupants. While the majority of his paintings are characterised by delicate, muted colours, the brightly-coloured macaws enabled him to introduce brilliant flashes of red, green and red into this sketch. With its large beak and vivid blue and yellow feathers, the bird in the foreground is probably a Blue-throated Macaw, with a Mexican Military Macaw on the perch behind; both birds originating in central and south America. There were certainly macaws in Dublin Zoo; the annual report of 1841 records the donation 'a pair of red and blue macaws' and there were other such donations through the course of the nineteenth century. The zoo was a resource for artists in Ireland, and one of J. Clarke & Sons' designs for a stained glass window incorporates a cockatoo and parrot. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, Osborne began work on a series of paintings depicting the poor of the city, sketching street scenes around St. Patrick's Cathedral and Stephen's Green. He also accepted portrait commissions, and in 1899, his double portrait of Mrs. Noel Guinness and her daughter Margaret was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy, having been shown at the RA the previous year. The Parrot House, which was in the Guinness family collection for many years, was likely a gift from the artist at that time. Peter Murray, March 2021