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Overview
Malcolm Osborne’s masterpiece of portraiture, Mrs. Heberden (1923), represents the culmination of nearly 20 years’ experience as one of the most talented printmakers of his generation. His ability as a printmaker was clear from the very outset of his pupillage under Sir Frank Short. Osborne was to become a printmaker of outstanding technical ability, being elected an Associate Engraver of the Royal Academy on the strength of his printmaking alone. Malcolm Osborne went on to succeed Short, first as head of the Engraving School at the Royal College of Art (in 1924) and later as President of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (in 1939). Full membership of the Royal Academy and a CBE followed.
Mrs Heberden is a remarkable achievement in drypoint portraiture. Not only has the artist represented the features of his sitter with extraordinary accuracy, but also, in the words of the major print critic and champion, Malcolm Salaman, "the artist suggests by this dignified old lady’s wise and benevolent expression, as she enjoys the comfortable support of her great chair, the gracious circumstance of a life well and contentedly lived". This drypoint must be regarded as one of the most intuitive and monumental portraits of its time. It was reproduced, full page, in both Print Collector’s Quarterly, Vol. XII, p. 307, and Fine Prints of the Year 1924, plate 36; in the latter publication, Mrs. Heberden was declared to be "decidedly one of the finest prints of the year".
See: Campbell Fine Art, http://www.campbell-fine-art.com/items.php?id=178
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art May 2018