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Auction archive: Lot number 72

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI

IMPORTANT IRISH ART
27 Mar 2019
Estimate
€60,000 - €80,000
ca. US$67,526 - US$90,035
Price realised:
€85,000
ca. US$95,662
Auction archive: Lot number 72

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI

IMPORTANT IRISH ART
27 Mar 2019
Estimate
€60,000 - €80,000
ca. US$67,526 - US$90,035
Price realised:
€85,000
ca. US$95,662
Beschreibung:

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) A Bit of Sutton Courtney - A Village by the Thames Oil on panel, 41 x 32cm (16 x 12½'') Signed; inscribed verso Provenance: The Rowley Gallery stamp verso, 87 Campden Street, Kensington Church Street, London, whence purchased in the 1920s; hence by descent. Exhibited: The Dublin Art Club, 1887, Catalogue No.129. Literature: Sheehy, Jeanne, 'Walter Osborne', Gifford & Craven, Ballycotton 1974, p.121, no.174; Bodkin, Thomas, 'Four Irish Landscape Painters', Dublin and London, 1920, Appendix XI, p.133; le Harival, Adrian and Michael Wynne, 'Acquisitions, 1984-86, National Gallery of Ireland', Dublin, 1986, p.68, illustrated fig.60b. (note: Osborne titled this picture with the spelling Sutton Courtney and this spelling will be used when referring to the painting. The correct spelling of the village is Sutton Courtenay.) Journeying along the river Thames, Cork-born artist Robert Gibbings wrote in 1940 that: Suttons Pool by Sutton Courtenay is a fairy world of falling waters. By moonlight�Ǫ it is a setting for the rarer moments in life. Gibbings did not linger in the village, leaving the last golden hours of evening to the boys fishing on the weirs (1). In 1887, Walter Osborne had stayed at Sutton Courtenay (then in Berkshire but today in Oxfordshire) and painted the present picture A Bit of Sutton Courtney, A Village by the Thames. It shows a boy leaning against a wooden railing, fishing, while across the river a woman stands and tall red buildings are lit by sunlight. Walter Osborne observes the scene meticulously and the picture has a wealth of detail and a strong human presence. In spite of its rural setting, the painting is aflame with warm, glowing reds and browns, almost unprecedented in Irish art at this time. Having earlier studied in Dublin and Antwerp and painted in Brittany, Osborne spent much of the second half of the 1880s working in English villages and towns, painting a series of village, farming and coastal scenes. These are some of the finest pictures of his career. He painted much in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, for instance at Newbury, Uffington, Didcot and on the Downs. Sometimes he had the company of fellow artist Blandford Fletcher and his friend from Dublin, writer Stephen Gwynn, was in nearby Oxford, 1882-1886, and was teaching at Bradfield School in 1888 (2). Sutton Courtenay was a tranquil and picturesque village just south of Abingdon and north of Didcot, situated in a curve in the river Thames. It had been settled by the Saxons, who built a causeway on the river. In the twelfth century, the village took the name of the Courtenay family, who lived in the manor (3). All Saints Church and other fine buildings date from later centuries (4). In the mid-19th century, many villagers were employed in the local paper mill and in domestic service. The most striking features of the village were the causeway and weirs that separated the millstream from the Sutton Pools and Osborne was attracted to the streams where boys fished. From his early days in Ireland, he had depicted several pictures of lads fishing in a stream or canal (5). In A Bit of Sutton Courtney, the figure is placed close to the viewer, leaning against a wooden fence. He holds a fishing rod and looks down at the river. He wears a kind of deer-stalker hat, white shirt and brown waistcoat. Sunshine falls upon his cheek and sleeve. His figure is viewed from behind and his legs are cut by the lower edge of the picture, suggesting a photographic influence. Across the river, a woman with hat and violet apron stands upon the river bank looking at the barge. Even though the figures are separated by the river, visual and, perhaps, emotional affinities between them are evoked both looking down and both holding a rod or a stick. There is a wealth of detail in the scene: the rough grain of the sturdy wooden fence, with an upright post just visible behind the boy's legs; the reflections and ripples in the river and the

Auction archive: Lot number 72
Auction:
Datum:
27 Mar 2019
Auction house:
Adams's
St Stephens Green 26
D02 X665 Dublin 2
Ireland
info@adams.ie
+353-1-6760261)
Beschreibung:

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) A Bit of Sutton Courtney - A Village by the Thames Oil on panel, 41 x 32cm (16 x 12½'') Signed; inscribed verso Provenance: The Rowley Gallery stamp verso, 87 Campden Street, Kensington Church Street, London, whence purchased in the 1920s; hence by descent. Exhibited: The Dublin Art Club, 1887, Catalogue No.129. Literature: Sheehy, Jeanne, 'Walter Osborne', Gifford & Craven, Ballycotton 1974, p.121, no.174; Bodkin, Thomas, 'Four Irish Landscape Painters', Dublin and London, 1920, Appendix XI, p.133; le Harival, Adrian and Michael Wynne, 'Acquisitions, 1984-86, National Gallery of Ireland', Dublin, 1986, p.68, illustrated fig.60b. (note: Osborne titled this picture with the spelling Sutton Courtney and this spelling will be used when referring to the painting. The correct spelling of the village is Sutton Courtenay.) Journeying along the river Thames, Cork-born artist Robert Gibbings wrote in 1940 that: Suttons Pool by Sutton Courtenay is a fairy world of falling waters. By moonlight�Ǫ it is a setting for the rarer moments in life. Gibbings did not linger in the village, leaving the last golden hours of evening to the boys fishing on the weirs (1). In 1887, Walter Osborne had stayed at Sutton Courtenay (then in Berkshire but today in Oxfordshire) and painted the present picture A Bit of Sutton Courtney, A Village by the Thames. It shows a boy leaning against a wooden railing, fishing, while across the river a woman stands and tall red buildings are lit by sunlight. Walter Osborne observes the scene meticulously and the picture has a wealth of detail and a strong human presence. In spite of its rural setting, the painting is aflame with warm, glowing reds and browns, almost unprecedented in Irish art at this time. Having earlier studied in Dublin and Antwerp and painted in Brittany, Osborne spent much of the second half of the 1880s working in English villages and towns, painting a series of village, farming and coastal scenes. These are some of the finest pictures of his career. He painted much in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, for instance at Newbury, Uffington, Didcot and on the Downs. Sometimes he had the company of fellow artist Blandford Fletcher and his friend from Dublin, writer Stephen Gwynn, was in nearby Oxford, 1882-1886, and was teaching at Bradfield School in 1888 (2). Sutton Courtenay was a tranquil and picturesque village just south of Abingdon and north of Didcot, situated in a curve in the river Thames. It had been settled by the Saxons, who built a causeway on the river. In the twelfth century, the village took the name of the Courtenay family, who lived in the manor (3). All Saints Church and other fine buildings date from later centuries (4). In the mid-19th century, many villagers were employed in the local paper mill and in domestic service. The most striking features of the village were the causeway and weirs that separated the millstream from the Sutton Pools and Osborne was attracted to the streams where boys fished. From his early days in Ireland, he had depicted several pictures of lads fishing in a stream or canal (5). In A Bit of Sutton Courtney, the figure is placed close to the viewer, leaning against a wooden fence. He holds a fishing rod and looks down at the river. He wears a kind of deer-stalker hat, white shirt and brown waistcoat. Sunshine falls upon his cheek and sleeve. His figure is viewed from behind and his legs are cut by the lower edge of the picture, suggesting a photographic influence. Across the river, a woman with hat and violet apron stands upon the river bank looking at the barge. Even though the figures are separated by the river, visual and, perhaps, emotional affinities between them are evoked both looking down and both holding a rod or a stick. There is a wealth of detail in the scene: the rough grain of the sturdy wooden fence, with an upright post just visible behind the boy's legs; the reflections and ripples in the river and the

Auction archive: Lot number 72
Auction:
Datum:
27 Mar 2019
Auction house:
Adams's
St Stephens Green 26
D02 X665 Dublin 2
Ireland
info@adams.ie
+353-1-6760261)
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