Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859-1903) Cattle Resting in ...
Hammer
€10,500
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859-1903) Cattle Resting in a Pasture (1892) Oil on panel 14.5 x 23.5cm (5¾ x 9¼) Signed and dated (18)'92 lower left; signed and inscribed '5 Castlewood Av' to partial label verso
Osborne's charming picture of five placid heifers grazing in an open pasture is a simple scene yet no less effective for that fact. The board is split evenly between sky and grassland with the cattle dotted lazily throughout the midground. The extensive space, unencumbered by fencing, trees or building is remarkably bare and its Herefords rule each tussock of grass in slumbersome sovereignty. It is likely this was painted in the countryside outside Portmarnock, Malahide or Rush where Osborne took much inspiration in his later years. It is worth noting the similarity to another slightly larger work likely completed in the same sitting titled Cows in Field (1892) which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland since it was presented by Mrs T. Moorehead in 1978.
Walter Frederick Osborne's natural predilection for animal painting was no doubt inherited from his father William Osborne RHA (1823-1901), a well-respected animal painter, specialising in hounds and horses. The younger Osborne also had great affection for the animal subject, yet his approach was more so that of a colourist – excelling in form and tone and texture. Upon enrolling in the RHA in 1845, it should be noted that he was awarded a silver medal for proficiency in the Knowledge of Anatomy that same year and continued to excel in life drawing categories throughout his studies. The young artist won the Taylor Prize of £10 for a promising landscape titled View from Templeogue Bridge in 1879, which though crisply and conventionally painted, revealed a lifelong interest in animal subjects. In 1881 Osborne won the Taylor Scholarship to the value of £50 and was promptly packed off to the Antwerp Academy to continue his studies training under Charles Verlat (1824-1890), who further instilled in him the need for careful observation and tight handling. The Impressionist cattle study here presented is a beautiful example of Osborne's later works which saw him shrug off the sharp melodrama of the Verlat style in favour of a looser, textured depiction altogether more realistic in spite of its lack of fine detail.
Osborne's work has an innate spontaneity in spite of the fact that he did not paint plein-air, inviting comparisons with the contemporaneous Newlyn School, major proponents of plein-air-ism. In the last decade of his life Osborne developed a close friendship with Nathaniel Hone RHA (1831-1917) and it is Hone's French Naturalist influence perhaps that inspired this final maturation of Osborne's works. Certainly, the subject and treatment of sky in Cattle Resting in a Pasture is very reminiscent of Hone's 'Sunshine at Noon' and 'Malahide Pastures' painted in the same period. This growing 'painterliness' and boldness of colour and brush we can admire in Osborne's later works can all be identified in this neat study. Sadly, Osborne's extensive output and developing painterly style ended quite abruptly when he died at the young age of 43 from a sudden bout of pneumonia brought on by a bicycle ride in bad weather one wet day during Easter 1903. Osborne's evolution from his initial academic success with View From Templeogue Bridge reveals an artist who revelled in the simplicity of subject, particularly the animal, the seaside and the country rustics.
Stephanie Brennan, August 2026
Hammer
€10,500
Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859-1903) Cattle Resting in a Pasture (1892) Oil on panel 14.5 x 23.5cm (5¾ x 9¼) Signed and dated (18)'92 lower left; signed and inscribed '5 Castlewood Av' to partial label verso
Osborne's charming picture of five placid heifers grazing in an open pasture is a simple scene yet no less effective for that fact. The board is split evenly between sky and grassland with the cattle dotted lazily throughout the midground. The extensive space, unencumbered by fencing, trees or building is remarkably bare and its Herefords rule each tussock of grass in slumbersome sovereignty. It is likely this was painted in the countryside outside Portmarnock, Malahide or Rush where Osborne took much inspiration in his later years. It is worth noting the similarity to another slightly larger work likely completed in the same sitting titled Cows in Field (1892) which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland since it was presented by Mrs T. Moorehead in 1978.
Walter Frederick Osborne's natural predilection for animal painting was no doubt inherited from his father William Osborne RHA (1823-1901), a well-respected animal painter, specialising in hounds and horses. The younger Osborne also had great affection for the animal subject, yet his approach was more so that of a colourist – excelling in form and tone and texture. Upon enrolling in the RHA in 1845, it should be noted that he was awarded a silver medal for proficiency in the Knowledge of Anatomy that same year and continued to excel in life drawing categories throughout his studies. The young artist won the Taylor Prize of £10 for a promising landscape titled View from Templeogue Bridge in 1879, which though crisply and conventionally painted, revealed a lifelong interest in animal subjects. In 1881 Osborne won the Taylor Scholarship to the value of £50 and was promptly packed off to the Antwerp Academy to continue his studies training under Charles Verlat (1824-1890), who further instilled in him the need for careful observation and tight handling. The Impressionist cattle study here presented is a beautiful example of Osborne's later works which saw him shrug off the sharp melodrama of the Verlat style in favour of a looser, textured depiction altogether more realistic in spite of its lack of fine detail.
Osborne's work has an innate spontaneity in spite of the fact that he did not paint plein-air, inviting comparisons with the contemporaneous Newlyn School, major proponents of plein-air-ism. In the last decade of his life Osborne developed a close friendship with Nathaniel Hone RHA (1831-1917) and it is Hone's French Naturalist influence perhaps that inspired this final maturation of Osborne's works. Certainly, the subject and treatment of sky in Cattle Resting in a Pasture is very reminiscent of Hone's 'Sunshine at Noon' and 'Malahide Pastures' painted in the same period. This growing 'painterliness' and boldness of colour and brush we can admire in Osborne's later works can all be identified in this neat study. Sadly, Osborne's extensive output and developing painterly style ended quite abruptly when he died at the young age of 43 from a sudden bout of pneumonia brought on by a bicycle ride in bad weather one wet day during Easter 1903. Osborne's evolution from his initial academic success with View From Templeogue Bridge reveals an artist who revelled in the simplicity of subject, particularly the animal, the seaside and the country rustics.
Stephanie Brennan, August 2026
