Irish art always deserves a wider international audience so the celebration of Walter Osborne (1859-1903) at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana is to be welcomed. After studying in Antwerp and painting in the countryside in France and England Osborne returned to Dublin following the death of his sister Violet to help raise her infant daughter who had been sent to his aging parents in Rathmines. His sparkling portraits of Dublin’s elite offer a unique vision of urban Ireland and earned him international acclaim. The exhibition brings together masterpieces from public and private collections in Ireland and the US including loans from The National Gallery of Ireland, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Limerick City Gallery of Art and The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880-1900 will continue until December 7. Pictured here is a portrait of Mary Guinness and her daughter Margaret, 1898 from the National Gallery of Ireland collection now on view in the US.
