Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley MC

Sir Oswald Birley was a great Royal and society portrait painter for the first half of the 20^th century.  He ranked with Augustus John, John Lavery, William Nicholson, William Orpen, Glyn Philpot and John Singer Sargent in competing for commissions from the rich and famous.  He travelled extensively and had an international clientèle.  He exhibited mainly in London and New York, showcasing his portraits at the Royal Academy from 1904 to 1945.

Charming, well connected socially and with a beautiful wife who featured in some of his most original pictures, Birley was successful at promoting his paintings and also worked prodigiously hard.  Besides portrait commissions he did paint a variety of other subjects, largely for his own satisfaction.

The present subject is a newly rediscovered work from between 1921 and 1925.  The beautiful dark-haired street seller is portrayed with great perception and sensitivity, part of the street scene yet alienated from the passers-by.

It can be compared with Birley’s 1921 painting Kitty of Frying Pan Alley.(126.8 x 101.5 cms. Aberdeen Art Gallery) where he captured the beauty of a flower seller with red hair, Mrs. Kitty Brooks of Frying Pan Alley, Spitalfields.  When it was exhibited in 1921 it was much admired but there were suggestions that Birley had romanticised and exaggerated her looks.  The press, however, traced her and published photographs verifying her beauty.  Kitty’s portrait is evidence that our picture is most likely a portrait of an actual character.