Beschreibung:

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859 - 1903) Her Garden (1891) Oil on panel, 35.5 x 25.5 cm (14 x 10'') Signed Exhibited: Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin 1891, No. 224 Entitled ' Her Garden', ?10-10 Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, Cat No. 300, p. 130; Adrian le Harival and Michael Wynne, National Gallery of Ireland, Acquisitions, 1984 - 1986, 1986, p. 68 Among Walter Osborne's favourite subjects were scenes of girls in gardens,(1), farmyards, orchards and courtyards, and boys in the landscape, village street or by the seashore, painted variously in Antwerp, Brittany, England and Ireland. The theme of the garden became immensely popular during the Impressionist period.(2) Painted in an English village in the middle of his career, the present picture of a girl in a garden belongs to this tradition, and is notable for its sunlit atmosphere and vivid colouring. Executed on a sturdy wooden panel, the picture was exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1891, entitled 'Her Garden'. Osborne recorded the painting in a small ink drawing for his sketchbook. In visits to England from the mid 1880's to the early nineties Osborne painted in a number of small towns and villages, working in the company of fellow artists. He painted many open air scenes of villages, streets, gardens and farmyards, of farming subjects with people at work or relaxing, and of landscapes and coastal subjects. In the late eighties his careful Realist style gave way to a broader more colourful approach. This marked a response to a series of exceptionally sunny summers, to the vivid red brickwork and verdant surroundings of English villages, and to the influence of contemporaries, such as W. Blandford Fletcher or the Impressionism of Philip Wilson Steer or John Singer Sargent Painted in 1888 'Her Garden' is a companion picture to the larger canvas A Cottage Garden, (probably originally entitled Bachelor's Garden, 1888, NGI) which also features a profuse garden, a similar red brick farmhouse, and a figure: that of a bearded man standing in his doorway in the background. The present picture shows a girl in a cottage garden watering flowers on a sunny day. The back door and window of the cottage are open, suggesting contact between house and garden. As in many of his paintings, Osborne enjoys the interlocking lines and forms of walls, rooftops, doors and windows. In Her Garden the lower roofs have red tiles, while the main roof of the house is thatched. Osborne captures the glare of a summer's day, where sunshine falls upon the farmhouse, the roof, and much of the garden; and upon the straw hat, the lower part of the girl's face, and upon her shoulders. Although her figure is treated with generality rather than detail, and her hat overshadows her eyes, there is a feeling of contentment to her. Osborne made a tiny ink sketch after the painting. This was included in a sketchbook in which he recorded many of his pictures painted 1879-1893. This remained in a family collection, and was presented to the National Gallery of Ireland by Mrs Sophia Mallin in 1984(3). The drawing features the girl watering flowers in the garden, with the house behind. Slight differences between the sketch and the painting: the windows, the lack of the gabled house on the left in the sketch, the slope of the roof, upper right, and the angle of the tree, can be explained by the fact that this is not a preparatory drawing for the painting but is a sketch made afterwards, probably from memory. The fluid lines on the left, indicating the foliage, suggest that Osborne had represented the garden and flowers in a broader, more abstract way. Below the sketch Osborne has written the title, which may initially appear to be the word 'Hereforden', ie. suggesting that the girl is a native of Hereford. However, Adrian le Harival and Michael Wynne have correctly interpreted the inscription as 'Her Garden'(4), the title of the painting which Osborne exhibited at the RHA in 1891.