Dublin Streets: a Vendor of Books is an 80 x 90 cm oil on canvas painting by the Irish artistWalter Osborne, completed in 1889 and housed in theNational Gallery of Ireland. It is one of a series of paintings Osborne made at the time emphasising the plight and hardships of Dublin's poor.
.jpg)
The painting shows a bookseller'sstall, set up onAston Quay, looking eastwards towardsO'Connell Bridge with a hazyimpressionistic view ofJames Gandon’sCustom house.[1] A mother leaning against the wall holds a child in her arms. She looks tired and anxious, and appears to be connected with the young barefoot girl who approaches the bookseller's customers, offeringdaffodils for sale.[2] That they have been unsuccessful attracting buyers is indicated by the basket full of flowers on the ground by the woman.[1]
.jpg)
Other details in the bustling scene include traffic (horses, carts and pedestrians) passing over O'Connell Bridge, and abarge andskiff just coming into view as they travel up theRiver Liffey. To the right of the main figures are a number of horse-drawn carts awaiting fares. A number of men wearingkilts gather at a corner.
The painting is one of a series of paintings of Dublin street scenes the artist completed around the time,[1] during visits home from his residence in England. They were later exhibited as a group at theRoyal Academy.[3][4] The series was completed in oils in his studio, using detailed pencil sketches, and also on photographs, a modern approach for a painter at the time. Like the other works in the series,Dublin Streets is documentary in subject matter, influenced in part by the FrenchNaturalist andRealist painters.[1]
Although highly regarded today, these documentary, street paintings depicting everyday life were not commercially successful, and Osborne supplemented his income through portrait paintings, which were not as artistically satisfying. However, it remains an invaluable faithful record the quay in 1889; O'Connell bridge had just been rebuilt, while the view of Custom's house was overshadowed in 1891 by theLoopline Viaduct.