WALTER FREDERICK OSBORNE, R.H.A | ZAANDAM

Milmo-Penny Fine Art, Dublin 1991;

Sotheby's, London, 11 May 2006, lot 34;

Private Collection

Dublin, Milmo-Penny Fine Art, Exhibition of Irish Art, June 1991, no.14

Zaandam was a picturesque village in the Zaanstad region located just north of Amsterdam, which Osborne travelled to in 1895-96. Renowned for its brightly painted houses, canals and windmills, it was a popular subject for painters, attracting Claude Monet in the 1870s. In the soft, grey colouring it recalls the work of the Hague School tone, the Dutch Realist painters of the mid-19th century. 

The present work may relate to a watercolour by Osborne titled, Near Zaandam, featuring a landscape with windmills, painted in 1895. However, the inscription on the edge of the current canvas which reads 'Walter Osborne Zaandam May 1901', suggests that he may also have visited the village at this later date.

We are grateful to Julian Campbell for his previous research into the present work.