Lot 16 Sir Walter Frederick Osborne

Walter Frederick Osborne RHA (1859-1903) LOW TIDE Oil on panel, 5 1/4'' x 8 3/4'' (13.4 x 22.3cm), signed and dated 1889; inscribed label verso. As well as his larger subject pictures and landscapes with figures on canvas Walter Osborne also excelled at painting small, low-toned pictures on wood panel. The present painting, showing an estuary scene at low tide, lit by an early morning or evening light, with a couple of fishermen attending to their boats, is characteristic of such small works by Osborne. Although employing subdued tones, the artist uses glowing pinks, pale turquoises, blues, siennas, mauves and off-whites, applied in long, horizontal brushstrokes in the landscape and sky, and in more expressive or vertical strokes in the clouds, to evoke an atmospheric mood. The identity of the location is not certain. In c.1889-90 Osborne was painting at Rye in Sussex , on the south coast of England, and painted many small studies of the fishing fleet and tidal harbour there, and his masterly large canvas, ''The Ferry'' (sold deVeres 27th November 2013, lot 39 .) He exhibited several of his small paintings, for example ''Low Tide: A Sketch'' ( Royal Birmingham Society, 1890 No. 26); ''Estuary'' ; and ''Low Tide (1890 No. 109) However, it has also been suggested that the subject may be set at Malahide, Co. Dublin, at low tide. Julian Campbell May 2014.