Major Works
Her most famous single work is Nameless and Friendless (1857), which has been called "The most ingenious of all Victorian widow pictures." It depicts a recently bereaved woman attempting to make a living as an artist by offering a picture to a dealer, while two "swells" at the left ogle her. Osborn's The Governess was shown at the Royal Academy in 1860, and purchased by Queen Victoria. Works of this type, which focused on the distresses of women in contemporary Victorian society, have earned Osborn the designation "proto-feminist artist."
In 1861 Osborn exhibited her The escape of Lord Nithsdale from the Tower, 1717 at the Royal Academy. This historical painting shows Nithisdale eluding custody by dressing as a woman. Osborn's interest in women and women artists is encapsulated in her 1884 picture Portrait of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, in which feminist artist Barbara Bodichon was portrayed at her easel. Osborn executed a second portrait of Bodichon in 1888.
Read more about this topic: Emily Mary Osborn
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