John Hughes (1865-1941), Sculptor, against his Sculpture of Orpheus and Euridice

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Walter Frederick Osborne , Irish, 1859-1903

Title

Date1903

MediumWatercolour on paper

Dimensions

60.8 x 46.5 cm

Signedlower left: May 1903

Credit LineBequeathed, Sir William Thornley Stoker, 1912

Object numberNGI.2668

DescriptionThis portrait shows Osborne’s friend, the sculptor, John Hughes working in his studio on the sculpture Orpheus and Eurydice (c.1897-1903). Osborne uses light washes of watercolour to render the atmosphere of the light-filled dusty studio. Hughes looks out at the viewer with a thoughtful expression. In a loose impressionistic manner, Osborne deftly captures Hughes’s moment of pause from his work by showing his hands at rest. Flurries of blue, yellow and white brushstrokes add levity and a sense of wonder to this otherwise monochromatic scene.

(Katie Buckley, Curatorial Fellow - Prints and Drawings, An Artist's Presence, 2025, Print Gallery)
InscriptionThis is my portrait by Walter Osborne. One of the last pictures he painted. Presented by me to Lucy
Exhibition HistoryMemorial Exhibition of the Works of Walter Osbourne, held in the Galleries of the RHA, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Winter 1903

Irish International Exhibition, Fine Art Section, Dublin, 1907

Drawings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Wildenstein, London/New York, 1967

Centenary, Watercolour Society of Ireland, 1970

Irish Watercolours and Drawings, McMullen Museum of Art Boston College, Boston, 4 October 1993 – 5 December 1993