WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2024 FROM 6PM

26 13 Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903) GIRL FEEDING A TORTOISESHELL CAT, 1897 oil on canvas signed and dated upper right 11.50 by 8.50in. (29.2 by 21.6cm) Frame Size: 16.75 by 13.5in. (42.5 by 34.3cm) We are grateful to Dr Julian Campbell and Gearóid Hayes for their kind assistance in cataloguing this lot. Walter Osborne excelled at painting children and animals. He was the son of an animal painter William Osborne, and pet dogs and cats played an important part of the family household, providing the inspiration for many notable pictures. In the present picture, Girl Feeding a Tortoiseshell Cat, Walter Osborne depicts the scene with realism and intimacy. The child is seated on a wooden chair, her eyes lowered, as she gently cradles the cat on her lap with her left arm, while she holds the saucer of milk with her right hand. The lowered face of the cat drinking milk seems to echo that of the child, and its tortoiseshell and white fur, closed eyes and whiskers are brilliantly observed. The girl may be a scullery maid, for she wears a frayed, faded blue pinafore over a dark underdress. But she is seated in a comfortable living room, in front of a wall covered with prints, and a sideboard bearing a glass and a vase of flowers. An inner room is just visible behind. Osborne observes the youthful features of the child, her hair falling over her forehead, her eyebrows and lashes, her nose, rosy cheeks and lips, and hands, likewise the cat, with slightly smudged brushwork, to evoke their living quality. His skill as a painter is seen in the blue-rimmed saucer, vase and flowers. An ochre undercoat is visible beneath the pale blue dress, which is painted with bravura. Likewise, the surface of the furniture in the foreground is suggested with scraped, skidding textures. There is another, larger version of the painting, titled A New Arrival,1 featuring a very similar scene of a seated girl in blue gently feeding a tortoiseshell cat. But there are slight differences from the present picture. The girl appears older, her cheeks more muddy, and her hands work-worn. Her hair is tied back in a ponytail. The saucer, pottery and flowers are different, and there is a grandfather clock against the wall. Osborne often painted more than one version of favoured subjects, and Girl Feeding a Tortoiseshell Cat has a spontaneity which suggests that it may be a study for A New Arrival. Yet, mysteriously, it is dated 1887, a later date than the larger picture which is inscribed 1885. Osborne made a small ink drawing of A New Arrival in his sketchbook.2 A tortoiseshell cat appears in several paintings by Osborne and his father, so most likely it was a family pet. Girl with a Cat, for instance, features a cat on a stool observing a seated child. The pastel Suppertime, 1889 shows a mother cat watching over her black and tortoiseshell kittens, while William Osborne’s Friends features a biscuit-coloured dog looking up at a tortoiseshell cat on a stool.3 Dr Julian Campbell, October 2024 Footnotes: 1 A New Arrival, in Irish Sale, Christie’s, 14 May 2004, lot 179. 2 Ink Drawing of A New Arrival, in Osborne sketchbook, N.G.I. catalogue no. 19, 202, p. 3 3 Girl with a Cat, c. 1885, in Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton, 1974, catalogue no. 113, plate 16; Suppertime (or Cats), in Important Irish Art, Adam’s and Bonhams, 10 December 1997, lot 33; Let Us Be Friends by William Osborne, Important Irish Art, Adam’s, 4 December 2012, lot 68; see Noble Studies, William Osborne bicentenary, in Irish Arts Review, Winter 2023, Vol. 40, no. 4, Let us be Friends, plate 3, illustrated p. 104 €60,000-€80,000 (£50,420-£67,230 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot13