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Walter Frederick Osborne RHA ROI (1859-1903)
Portrait of Mrs Meade (1899)
Oil on canvas, 123 x 106.5cm (48½ x 42”)
Signed
Exhibited: London, Royal Academy 1899 Catalogue No. 948;
Liverpool, Autumn 1899, Catalogue No. 112;
Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1900, Catalogue No. 21; Dublin,
Walter Osborne Memorial Exhibition, Catalogue No. 69. Entitled Mrs Meade-Coffey.
Provenance:TheSitter; Mr. Michael Meade Carvill and thence by descent.
Literature: Jeanne Sheehy, Walter Osborne, Ballycotton 1974, Catalogue No. 521
Ada Louise Meade (1865-1931), neé Willis, 3rd daughter of Dr Thomas Willis MD of Dublin. She married
Joseph Meade, as his second wife, in 1887. Joseph was the son of Michael Meade, a successful Dublin build-
ing contractor, which business Joseph Meade expanded until it employed nearly 1,000 people.
His public career saw him as Alderman, High Sheriff and Lord Mayor of Dublin, hon. LLD from Trinity
College and a member of the Privy Council. He was a supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell. He died in 1900.
Although he built many of the significant buildings of late Victorian Dublin his reputation is tarnished to-
day by his vandalising activity and social irresponsibility in Henrietta Street. Ada Meade married secondly
Alfred Coffey, a barrister.
By the late 1890’s Walter Osborne had achieved a primary position in society portrait painting in Dublin
and had by the time this portrait was painted in 1898/99, executed portraits of luminaries such as Mrs Noel
Guinness and her daughter, Abraham Stoker, Mrs Bram Stoker, Col McCalmont, Hugh Lane and various
members of the academic, religious and judicial worlds.These portraits marked a considerable change in the
artist’s output, shifting from landscapes and urban genre scenes to the more lucrative world of the portraitist.
The present work demonstrates the influence of establishment artists James Abbott McNeill Whistler, John
Singer Sargent and Sir John Lavery.We see in this work the stylish treatment of the subject, wearing a black
lace gown and seated on a sumptuous red velvet upholstered couch.The exuberant handling and paint tones
are reminiscent of his influences and are superbly handled displaying an assurredness associated with a paint-
er of more years than Osborne’s.Mrs Meade’s direct but pensive gaze engages us and demonstrates Osborne’s
remarkable ability to gain psychological insight into his sitter. Simultaneously we are also distracted by the
glittering of her necklace, her diamond rings and her bracelet, all understated but clearly indicative of a lady
of some standing.This elegant work which is contained in an 18th century giltwood frame, has never been on
the market having remained in the sitter’s family since it was painted.
€80,000 - 120,000