DOI issue:
No. 269 (August 1915)
DOI article:Reddie, Arthur: The paintings of Oswald H. Birley, R. O. I.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21213#0198
Oswald Birley, R.O.I.
Wilson which we reproduce together with the Lady
in Black and Rose, exhibited in igi i at the Modern
Society of Portrait Painters and at the Walker
Gallery, Liverpool, and last year at the Carnegie
Institute, Pittsburgh. In the 1914 Autumn Ex-
hibition of the International Society he showed
an attractive portrait of Miss Esme Robb.
Mr. Birley’s numerous commissions have not left
him much time for other work. Some portrait-draw-
ings, and paintings such as The Rag Sorter, painted
in 1905 and shown the following year at the Salon
and recently at the Anglo-American Exposition,
and the interesting portrait of Mabel Beardsley in
fancy-dress (exhibited at the International, Spring
1915), which attracts attention both by the subject
and on account also of its beautiful colour, deserve
to be singled out for special mention.
Another interest of the artist is the painting of
portrait-groups, as, for instance, the skilfully
composed theatre-box group, with its clever
delineation of modern types, exhibited at
the Modem Society of Portrait Painters a
year or so ago, and the Children of Leopold
Hirsch, Esq., in which the arrangement is
agreeable and the background cleverly
harmonised with the figures, though the
foreground, one feels, has been handled
with rather less success. Two of Oswald
Birley’s most recent works, both in this
year’s Royal Academy, are the clever and
unaffectedly easy portrait of Montague Robb,
Esq., and a presentation portrait of Vis-
count Knutsford for the London Hospital.
Mr. Edmund Davis purchased for the
Luxembourg, where his gift is now in-
stalled, a self-portrait by Oswald Birley,
which was exhibited in London in 1913,
an excellent mirror painting, in which we
find the artist delighting in other of the
aesthetic problems in which he takes
interest; and besides the reflection of
himself in a blue painting-overall there is
some admirable still-life in the cleverly
treated ornaments on the mantelpiece.
Speaking of this brings me to a matter to
which I should like to refer in conclusion.
A few months ago The Studio illustrated
the beautiful portrait of the Countess
of Crawford by Mr. William Orpen, and
reference was made in the article ac-
companying it, to the very interesting
work of Mr. Orpen in reviving so happily
the representation of the sitter amid ap-
propriate environment. Those who re-
178
member that admirable tour-de-force, Oswald
Birley’s Lnterior a* fames Pryde's, which after
being exhibited at the Royal Academy last yeai
is now being shown at the Royal Scottish
Academy’s exhibition and is here reproduced m
colour, will recognise how skilfully he grapples
with the difficulties of painting interiors. May
we not suggest that the artist (when some day, as
we hope he may, he takes up his painting again)
should also make some excursions into this region
of the portrait interior-piece, and combining his un-
doubted gifts in portraying men and women with
his clever vision and technical ability in the paint-
ing of still-life, give us works which, satisfactory as
portraits of individuals, yet afford a further hint, in
their surroundings, of their lives, thus leaving a
record of the period in which those lives are
set? Arthur Reddie.
“uMISS MABEL BEARDSLEY AS AN ELIZABETHAN PAGE.” BY
OSWALD BIRLEY
Wilson which we reproduce together with the Lady
in Black and Rose, exhibited in igi i at the Modern
Society of Portrait Painters and at the Walker
Gallery, Liverpool, and last year at the Carnegie
Institute, Pittsburgh. In the 1914 Autumn Ex-
hibition of the International Society he showed
an attractive portrait of Miss Esme Robb.
Mr. Birley’s numerous commissions have not left
him much time for other work. Some portrait-draw-
ings, and paintings such as The Rag Sorter, painted
in 1905 and shown the following year at the Salon
and recently at the Anglo-American Exposition,
and the interesting portrait of Mabel Beardsley in
fancy-dress (exhibited at the International, Spring
1915), which attracts attention both by the subject
and on account also of its beautiful colour, deserve
to be singled out for special mention.
Another interest of the artist is the painting of
portrait-groups, as, for instance, the skilfully
composed theatre-box group, with its clever
delineation of modern types, exhibited at
the Modem Society of Portrait Painters a
year or so ago, and the Children of Leopold
Hirsch, Esq., in which the arrangement is
agreeable and the background cleverly
harmonised with the figures, though the
foreground, one feels, has been handled
with rather less success. Two of Oswald
Birley’s most recent works, both in this
year’s Royal Academy, are the clever and
unaffectedly easy portrait of Montague Robb,
Esq., and a presentation portrait of Vis-
count Knutsford for the London Hospital.
Mr. Edmund Davis purchased for the
Luxembourg, where his gift is now in-
stalled, a self-portrait by Oswald Birley,
which was exhibited in London in 1913,
an excellent mirror painting, in which we
find the artist delighting in other of the
aesthetic problems in which he takes
interest; and besides the reflection of
himself in a blue painting-overall there is
some admirable still-life in the cleverly
treated ornaments on the mantelpiece.
Speaking of this brings me to a matter to
which I should like to refer in conclusion.
A few months ago The Studio illustrated
the beautiful portrait of the Countess
of Crawford by Mr. William Orpen, and
reference was made in the article ac-
companying it, to the very interesting
work of Mr. Orpen in reviving so happily
the representation of the sitter amid ap-
propriate environment. Those who re-
178
member that admirable tour-de-force, Oswald
Birley’s Lnterior a* fames Pryde's, which after
being exhibited at the Royal Academy last yeai
is now being shown at the Royal Scottish
Academy’s exhibition and is here reproduced m
colour, will recognise how skilfully he grapples
with the difficulties of painting interiors. May
we not suggest that the artist (when some day, as
we hope he may, he takes up his painting again)
should also make some excursions into this region
of the portrait interior-piece, and combining his un-
doubted gifts in portraying men and women with
his clever vision and technical ability in the paint-
ing of still-life, give us works which, satisfactory as
portraits of individuals, yet afford a further hint, in
their surroundings, of their lives, thus leaving a
record of the period in which those lives are
set? Arthur Reddie.
“uMISS MABEL BEARDSLEY AS AN ELIZABETHAN PAGE.” BY
OSWALD BIRLEY