28 / 250
19
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)
HARBOUR SCENE, c.1898
oil on canvas laid on board
signed lower right; titled ‘Greystones’ on Dawson Gallery label on reverse
8 x 12in. (20.32 x 30.48cm)
Provenance:
Purchased by the present owner’s great-grandfather at the turn of the century
Literature:
Sheehy, Jeanne, Walter Osborne, Gifford & Craven, Ballycotton, Cork, 1974, p.144, catalogue no. 494 as “Greystones”
The present picture is a small and atmospheric study of a quayside with fishing boats, some with sails unfurled, moored
in the harbour, and silhouetted against the sky, with cottages behind, and a few figures present. Here Osborne employs
a restrained palette of pale greys and browns, lavenders, mauves and pinks, to evoke a sense of subdued light and
atmosphere, lifted by the lightness of the sky, which is represented by long horizontal stripes of very pale pinks and
blues. The suggestion of pale sunlight on the gable walls of the cottages on the left, and the silvery gleam of water with
reflections, are masterly. The artist was often at his best in painting small, informal studies of nature such as this, working
in a relaxed, fluid style, with some passages of lightly-brushed strokes and scrolls of paint, as if the picture was executed
in one sitting.
Throughout his life Osborne was attracted by village and harbour scenes, and there are echoes in the present work of
pictures set in other locations: for example a harbour scene at Lincoln, View of a Town, c.1884, including fishing boats;
a sloping quayside and bollard at Walberswick in 1884; fishing boats moored On the Quay at Rye, 1889; small pictures
painted near the harbour in Galway and scenes of the village street at Rush, for instance The Village Street, Rush and
Lusk, Co Dublin, c.1898. (1)
In Jeanne Sheehy’s text on Osborne she records the present work as catalogue no. 494 ‘Greystones’ and suggests that
the scene was painted by Osborne in or around 1898. (2) Osborne made a less well-documented visit to Greystones,
Co. Wicklow, a small fishing village south of Bray Head, which is set with a backdrop of the Wicklow mountains behind
it and the Irish Sea in front of it. In the year 1898 he was also working in much in north Co. Dublin, preparing his large
composition Milking Time at St. Marnock’s, and also small studies of villages, harbours and coastal landscapes at
locations in Rush, Lusk, Portmarnock and Malahide, often with passing figures present in the village street or on the
seashore.
Dr Julian Campbell
January, 2016
1. See, Whyte’s, Important Irish Art, 25 November 2013, lot 29. For two other paintings of Rush, see ‘Irish Sale’, Sotheby’s,
13 May 2005, lot 25; and ‘Irish Sale’, Sotheby’s, 11 May 2006, lot 23.2.
2. Sheehy, Jeanne, Walter Osborne, Gifford & Craven, Ballycotton, Cork, 1974, page 144.
€20000-€30000 (£15200-£21600 approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 19