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, Irish, 1859-1903
Title
The Dolls' School
Date1900
MediumWatercolour and pastel on paper
Dimensions
45.2 x 59.5 cm
Signedlower left (in ink): Walter Osborne. 1900.
Credit LinePurchased, 1903
Object numberNGI.2535
DescriptionThis charming watercolour offers a glimpse into the innocent world of childhood make-believe. It was painted only a few years before the artist’s premature death from pneumonia, aged 43. The little girl is believed to be Osborne’s niece, Violet Stockley, who appeared in a number of his compositions. Crouched on her bed she plays teacher to her neatly assembled dolls and, with finger pointed, looks to be either instructing or reprimanding them. The bedroom interior, her dress and the array of toys all suggest that she is from a comfortable, modestly affluent home. Osborne achieves a sense of informality and spontaneity in this scene through his use of ‘impressionistic’ loose brushwork, deft colour and light effects. In 1903, with the title Play, this work formed part of the memorial exhibition held in honour of Osborne at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Osborne initially trained at the Royal Hibernian Academy schools in Dublin from 1876 and later attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp. He travelled to the artists’ colonies in Brittany in 1882-83 and spent some years in England before returning home in the 1890s. During his short career he created some of Ireland’s best-loved works, all of which reflect his lively awareness of contemporary artistic trends.

March 2016

Exhibition HistoryMemorial Exhibition of the Works of Walter Osbourne, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Winter 1903

Irish Watercolours 1675-1925, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, 1976


Master European Drawings From the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minnesota; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983

Lines of Vision. Irish Writers at the National Gallery of Ireland, 8 October 2014 —12 April 2015