Homecoming

Published to coincide with the artist’s first monographic exhibition organized in the United States, Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880–1900 explores the art of this leading Irish painter. This vital catalogue of Osborne’s work depicts Dublin as a vibrant city of commerce, social interaction, and artistic potential in the late 19th century.

This lavishly illustrated catalogue charts the course of the artist’s student days, his travels to Belgium, France, and England—which informed so much of his subsequent painting—and finally his return to his native Dublin. Curators and scholars contributing to the catalogue cast his work as a reflection on Ireland’s capital—its citizens, architecture, and green spaces but, more importantly, its status as a city approaching modernization and political transformation. Iconic works from the National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane Gallery, Hunt Museum in Limerick, Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, and private collectors further elaborate those narratives. The result is a rich tapestry of life and art in Ireland at the close of the 19th century.

This publication accompanies an exhibition at Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, opening in August 2025.

Author biographies

Cheryl K. Snay PhD, is curator of European and American Art before 1900, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame.

Kathryn Milligan is assistant librarian, Edward Murphy Library, Dublin. Brendan Rooney is head curator at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Logan Sisley is acting head of collections at the Hugh Lane, Dublin.

Judith Stapleton is a Keough-Naughton Institute National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow.

Aoife-Marie Buckley is the Donald and Marilyn Keough Curatorial Fellow, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

• Director’s Foreword by Joseph Antenucci Becherer
• Acknowledgements by Cheryl K. Snay
• Notes
• A Home for Irish Art at the University of Notre Dame by Cheryl K. Snay
• Walter Osborne: Painter of Dublin by Judith Stapleton
• From “Speaking Likeness” to “Coltish Clumsiness”: Osborne’s Depiction of Children by Brendan Rooney
• At the Breakfast Table: Osborne, Family Life, and the Interior Scene by Kathryn Milligan
• Walter Osborne, Sarah Purser, and Hugh Lane: Logan Sisley
• Catalogue by Cheryl K. Snay, Judith Stapleton, and Aoife-Marie Buckley
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Photo Credits
• About the Authors