Jean Osborne

Jean Osborne (née Meikle; 21 February 1926 – 9 July 1965) was an artist from Northern Ireland who worked primarily in oils and watercolours.

Early life Osborne was born in the port of Larne, County Antrim, the daughter of William Meikle who was a fitter at Harland and Wolff.

Osborne was interested in art from a young age and at the age of twenty her talent was recognised by Paul Nietsche in Belfast. She was awarded a scholarship from the Ministry of Education to further her studies. Before moving to London in 1947 she worked for a short period as a seamstress. a few months after their first meeting. At the time, Jean Osborne was living in abject poverty but things did not immediately improve with marriage as her husband Dennis described a particularly bleak Christmas Eve in Belfast in the early 1950s:"...when everybody was getting ready to have a good time, I didn't have a bean. [...] I went into a pub and said, 'Anybody want to buy a painting? Ten Quid.' I was lucky to sell it. That was our Christmas day." In her graduation year Osborne was selected to show alongside other leading Ulster artists including Kathleen Bridle, John Luke, Dan O'Neill, and Deborah Brown, at the exhibition of Contemporary Ulster Art at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery, which formed part of the Festival of Britain. Before departing the UK for Canada in the autumn of 1953, the young artist participated in exhibitions with the New English Art Club, On 20 November 1953 Osborne sailed from Cobh, County Cork on the TSS Olympia to Canada where she was reunited with her husband who had emigrated 6 months earlier. She arrived in Niagara Falls eight days after her departure.

In January 1955 Osborne showed works in a joint exhibition with her husband and David Partridge at the Art Gallery, St Catharine’s Public Library.

To mark the first anniversary of her arrival in Canada, Osborne presented two paintings in the Art Gallery of Hamilton's 6th Annual Winter Exhibition, an oil entitled The Harmonica Player and a portrait of her closest friend, the poet and playwright Barbara Hunter.

In 1958 Osborne and her husband presented a joint exhibition at the Thielsen Gallery,

Death and legacy Osborne died in Lisburn Hospital on 9 July 1965, due to the brain tumour which had forced her return to Ulster six years before. She was 39 years old. Osborne was survived by her husband Dennis and her daughter, Moya. However, Dennis often insisted that Jean was the more accomplished of the two artists.

In 1967 the Arts Council of Northern Ireland paid tribute to her life and works in a retrospective memorial exhibition at the New Gallery, Belfast. Her husband contributed an introduction to the accompanying catalogue.

The Ulster Society of Women Artists also paid tribute to her life with her inclusion in the annual show in November 1967 at Dublin's Municipal Gallery.

In review of Osborne's posthumous retrospective at the New Gallery A W Bowyer commented: "There is more than enough to show how much was lost to us through the early death of this gifted artist." Osborne's works are held in many private collections, in addition to public collections such as the Ulster Museum and the Armagh County Museum.

Personal life Osborne gave birth to a daughter in 1957.