14 by 18in. (35.6 by 45.7cm)

Title: SUNSHINE AND BLOSSOM, 1885
Frame dimensions: 24 by 28in. (61 by 71.1cm)
Note: A boy stands in a meadow tending cattle, the trees in blossom, on a sunny spring day. Behind is a wall and a white-washed cottage with thatched roof, and a hazy blue sky. The scene is lit by a blond, pearly light, giving a mood of stillness and harmony. Sunshine and Blossom was painted in the English countryside, possibly in Hampshire in 1885. For much of the late 1880s and early 1890s Walter Osborne worked in a number of villages in England, painting many rural scenes, coastal subjects and landscapes, and producing some of his finest work. There his love for rural subjects deepened and his mature naturalistic style developed.Osborne had earlier painted a small orchard scene with farmhouse, A Sunny Morning, in Pont-Avon, Brittany in 1883. Now in Sunshine and Blossom he introduces a much fuller subject. A boy stands to the left of the tree, his figure half-hidden by long grass, tending four young brindled cows in the centre of the composition, one grazing another looking out at the viewer, while the cow approaching in the foreground is in shadow. The animals are framed by the trees, which form an arch, the branches and pink and white blossoms create complex but delicate patterns against the sky.The boy is an archetypal subject for Osborne. Such figures of country boys and girls, standing in the meadows or gardens, their clothes lit by sunlight, soft hats casting shadows upon their foreheads and perhaps holding a twig in their hands, appear in many pictures. The boy is attentive to the animals, yet also lost in reverie. Behind the wall is a long cottage with thatched roof, white-washed walls and low windows. To the left of the picture is a small gate, while at the right side there is a line of washing which gives a hint of human presence nearby.Osborne orchestrates all the elements of the painting into a harmonious whole, combining a careful naturalism with a gentle lyricism, to create a peaceful scene of rural life. Equal attention is given to each part of the picture. We note, for example the impastoed brushstrokes in the boy's white clothing, the square-brush style in the modelling of the trees, the vigorous brushwork in the meadow, flecked with delicate wild flowers, and, in contrast, the transparent blue shadows cast by the eaves of the thatched roof upon the white walls.Sunshine and Blossom is painted on canvas. Labels on the reverse - hand-written by Osborne - indicate the picture's title and the artist's address in Rathmines, County Dublin. The painting was exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club in 1885, priced £20. Osborne made a small pen and ink drawing after the painting (NGI, cat. no. 19, 201, p.3). He went on to execute many other rustic pictures, for example, Fast Falls the Eventide, 1888, showing a woman tending three cows in a meadow in front of a village.Sunshine and Blossom has not been seen in public in Ireland for many years, having been in a private collection in Denmark. Its appearance in Dublin is an exciting discovery, and sheds new light upon Osborne's rich oeuvre.Dr Julian Campbell,October 2022

Excellent condition.

oil on canvas