This document provides background information on the painting "Feeding the Chickens" by Irish artist Walter Osborne from 1885. It describes details of the painting such as its size, signature, estimated auction price. It discusses Osborne's travels in England and visit to Worcestershire where he painted and had issues with his chicken models. The painting depicts a girl feeding chickens and was praised for its atmospheric palette and textures.

1. Feeding the Chickens (1885)
• Oil on Canvas
• 91cm x 71.5cm
(3513/16 in x 281/8 in)
• Signed and Dated
“Walter Osborne/85”
(lower left corner)
• Up for auction in 2012
estimated €500,000-
€700,000 but didn’t sell

2. Travel through England
• Early 1884 travelled
through East Anglia
and Lincolnshire
• Accompanied by
two friends
Nathaniel Hill and
Edward Stott

3. Visit to Worcestershire
• Summer 1884
Osborne in
Worcestershire
• Visited Little
Northton near
Evesham in
October
• Painted Feeding
the Chickens

4. Feeding the Chickens
• Osborne regarded as an impressionist
• This is a naturalist painting
• Work is more romantic, displaying sharp detail
usually lost in impressionist works and using
exquisite skill to vividly capture a natural scene.
• Influenced by Bastien-Lepage who told Osborne
to look for old world themes and express them
in a modern way (Professor Kenneth McConkey)
• Example of plein-air painting

5. The painting itself
• Depicts a child wearing an
embroidered bonnet and holding a
basket of grain, surrounded by a
brood of hens.
• The girl is young but self-assured,
with her solemn, serious expression
• Been described as having an
atmospheric palette, with dappled
sunlight and a combination of
sumptuous textures and tones (Charles
O’Brien, head of Bonhams 19th Century Paintings Department)
• Osborne's 'Feeding the Chickens' on view in Dublin: Bonhams' Charles O'Brien

6. Problems faced by Osborne
• Wrote to his father on 12th
October 1884
• “Now I am pretty far advanced on a kit-kat of a girl in a sort of
farmyard…The figure of the girl which is a little over two feet high
is coming towards finish”
• “the immediate foreground with poultry is merely sketched in as
yet. The fowl are very troublesome, and I have made some
sketches but will have to do a lot more as they form rather an
important part of the composition.”
• Osborne then asked his father to see if he can find the sketches
of chickens he had made in Brittany the previous year
• “The weather, I am sorry to say has been bitterly cold the last
week, so much so that my model nearly fainted and I had to send
her home”

7. Assessment
• The rural theme was popular at the time
and widely echoed in works by many of
Osborne’s contemporaries
• The painting is regarded as “a remarkable
example of the dramatic change that Irish
painting underwent towards the end of the
19th century, with artists increasingly being
influenced by movements in continental
Europe” (Charles O’Brien, head of Bonhams 19th Century Paintings Department)

9. Life in the Streets, Hard Times
• In 1892 Osborne returned to live in Dublin. He
worked from his family home in Rathmines
• He began painting a series of paintings entitled
‘Life in the Streets, Hard Times’
• Osborne’s reputation was enormously enhanced
when he began painting these street scenes in
Dublin.
• The downtrodden streets provided Osborne with
a seemingly endless supply of motifs and
images

10. Fish Market, Patrick Street

11. Details
• Oil on Canvas
• 59.7x80 cms
• Dated 1893
• Currently in the Dublin City Gallery, the
Hugh Lane, Dublin
• Painted from preparatory sketches
• Possible that Osborne also worked from
photographs

12. The Painting
• The Fish Market, Patrick Street, is full of small and
exquisite details.
• The faces of the woman seated behind the fish
stall, and the girl standing just in front of it, are
softly rendered.
• The bowl right at the centre of the canvas in the
foreground shines out, reminiscent of a Dutch-style
still-life painting
• In the background, we can see other market stalls
selling everything from baskets to joints of meat.

13. Technique and Influence
• The Fish Market, Patrick Street, contains gritty,
realistic tones
• The style of this painting is Impressionistic,
• Osborne’s eye for detail is evident in the still-life
elements on the table in the foreground and the
sides of meat hanging in the background.
• He empathised with working people and the figure
of the woman, engrossed in her work, is beautifully
rendered.
• He excelled at painting children too without being
overtly sentimental.