46
62
Paul Henry
KEEL VILLAGE,
oil on canvas
signed lower le
18 by 20in. (45.
Provenance:
Private collecti
Adam’s, 28 May
Whence purcha
Exhibited:
‘Paintings by M
Russell (AE), Lei
Literature:
Kennedy, S.B.,
P
London, 2007, c
In original Waddi
The form of the si
signify that this c
August 1911.The
seen from the hig
the middle distan
moderate impast
painting at this ti
blues and greys t
influence that wo
foreground, is ch
composition of t
is larger, althoug
excitement at his
Dr SB Kennedy
February 2013
!
50,000-
!
70,0
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
Lot 34
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)
A CORNER OF THE FARMYARD, c.1886-1888
oil on board signed lower right; with Arnold Wiggins & Sons [London] label on reverse
10.25 by 13.75in. (26.04 by 34.93cm)
Provenance: Pyms Gallery, London; Where purchased by the present owner
Exhibited: ʻThe Irish Revivalʼ, Pyms Gallery, London, May – June 1982, catalogue no. 3
(illustrated)
Literature: Potterton, Homan, ʻIrish Paintersʼ, in Irish America,1990, p.64 (illustrated)
McConkey,Kenneth, A Free Spirit. Irish Art 1860-1960,Antique Collectorʼs Club, Pyms
Gallery, London, 1990, p.34, 36 (illustrated)
Throughout his career, as well as his other genre scenes with children and country
people,Walter Osborne painted intimate studies of nature: farmyards, cottage gardens,
orchards, little woods and quiet rustic corners. He often gave them as much attention
as his more substantial subject pictures; indeed it could be said that these small
paintings contain much of Osborneʼs spirit as an artist. He painted such studies of
farmyards, thatched buildings and gardens in Belgium and Brittany and equally in
England and Ireland. Fine examples of this genre include An Intruder,18831, featuring
an old cottage, chickens, ducks and a cat; and Landscape with Child in White (NGI cat.
no. 4332), which includes a little girl and a cabbage patch.
The present picture, A Corner of a Farmyard,is a painting in this genre. Osborne
observes the rural details with realism, intimacy and a distinctive sense of colour;
cabbages in the foreground, chickens pecking on the grass, triangular-shaped
haystack, sunflowers, the thatched roof of a rustic barn behind the trees, and the blue
sky at the top of the picture.The humble cabbage patch was a subject represented by
many naturalistic artists of Osborneʼs generation; and chickens being fed or pecking for
food appear in many of his pictures, painted most convincingly.
There is an area of pentimentoin the lower right-hand corner of the picture; Kenneth
McConkey notes that Osborne had included geese there, but then painted over them,
but leaving the forms still visible2. Osborne employs an attractive palette of of blue-
greens, olives, grey-greens, ochres, silvers and blues, to evoke the warmth and pinkish
sunlight of a summerʼs day.
The artistʼs signature with squared letters, small capitals, and ʻRʼSʼ with long tails, may
date to the mid 1880s, when Osborne was working in English villages.
Dr Julian Campbell September 2013
1 The Intruder, 1883, Irish Sale, Christieʼs, London, 21 May 1997, lot 150.
2 Kenneth McConkey, A Free Spirit, Irish Art 1860-1960, 1990, p.34
€20,000-€30,000 (£17,090-£25,640 approx.)
