Adam's IB JORGENSEN - INTERIOR SALE 20th October 2020

32 Tuesday 20 th October 2020 28 WALTER FREDERICK OSBORNE RHA ROI (1859-1903) A Young Girl in a Village Oil on artist's board, 20.5 x 14.3cm (8 x 5½'') Provenance: With Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin. Walter Osborne's small painting of children in a village square on a sunny day is both characteristic of him, yet colourful and surprising, combining Naturalism with an evocative narrative content, a carefully controlled composition with a relaxed 'snapshot', almost 'cinematic' quality, and a contrast of strong sunlight and shadow. The figures, of the girl in the foreground, the boy with donkey or mule, and the silhouetted person behind, are sheltering from the heat of the day, and stand in deep shadow. As in several of Osborne's pictures, the little girl is viewed in profile or from behind, looking back at the other figures, creating a relationship with them, and inviting the viewer's interest. Are these children brother and sister, what sort of rural lives do they lead, and who is the figure in the background ? In contrast, the upper part of the picture, showing the square and farm buildings, is in bright sunlight. The contrast of bright light and deep shadow, the donkey and sun-baked square, and the hot reds and oranges, give the painting a slightly Spanish atmosphere. Yet the costumes of the children: girl with neat straw hat and bow, boy with hat and white shirt, and the brick buildings, barns and red-tiled roofs, indicate that the setting is in England. Osborne spent much of the period from 1884 to the early 1890's working in villages and in the countryside, and their street scenes, rural subjects with children and landscapes are among his finest paintings. In the present picture, the red brick buildings and high colouring are characteristic of his Berkshire paintings of c.1887/88, so it may date to this period. A diagonal line divides the shadowy foreground area from the sunny background. This is 'echoed' by the diagonals in the roofs which, together with horizontal lines, show the artist's love of blocked, interlocking shapes of buildings and walls. Equally typical is the little strip of trees and sky in the upper right corner of the picture, hinting at nature beyond. The colours of the buildings and square: reds, mauves, umbers, pale blues, pinks and oranges, glow with warmth. Certain colours are used in different parts of the picture, giving unity to the picture surface, in certain places, for instance in the girl's shoulder, and the sunny edge of a wall above the donkey's ear, Osborne employs a 'square-brush' style, while the pale blue walls and sky are brushed in more broadly. The picture is painted on millboard, a compressed pasteboard often used by Osborne and other Plein-air painters. Julian Campbell € 30,000 - 35,000