Sculptor and, in his teens, a successful amateur boxer, born in Brighton, East Sussex. He was a dyslexic and, having left school at 14 with no academic qualifications, had his application to Brighton Art College rejected. Instead, he undertook a four-year apprenticeship with master craftsmen, honing his skills in the decorative arts and working on historic buildings such as Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. He travelled widely in the 1960s, earning money by selling his paintings and working with woodworkers, stone carvers and quarrymen. On his return to England, he worked in bronze foundries to learn the process of casting, setting up his own foundry in Hove in 1975, initially to cast his own work, but soon casting that of others as well. In 1985, he opened a studio in Covent Garden, London, and began building a reputation as a figurative sculptor. In 1988, he was commissioned to sculpt a half-life-size bronze of Queen Elizabeth II’s horse ‘Burmese’, which today is in the Mews, Museum, Windsor. Then, in 1989, he was commissioned to sculpt a two-thirds-life-size bronze of the famous racehorse, ‘Eclipse’ for Newmarket racecourse, Suffolk (a second cast is at the Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and a cast of the maquette is at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut). In 1990, his Boy on a Magic Rocking Horse was set up temporarily in Kensington Gardens, London, and his life-size bronze of the greyhound, Ballyregan Bob, erected permanently at Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium. His Dolphin Fountain was inaugurated in Brighton Square, Brighton, on 2 March 1992. Working with his brother Fred, Osborne donated and auctioned many of his sculptures over the years, raising in excess of half a million pounds for charities, including the Variety Club, the Born Free Foundation, the Spinal Injuries Association and Save the Children. He died from cancer at the age of 52 and was survived by his wife, Judy, and two children, Martin and Kit.
Bibliography: D. Buckman, Artists in Britain since 1945 (2 vols: A–L, M–Z), Bristol, 2006; D. Macallister, ‘Dufftown collector celebrates rare find by favourite sculptor of royals’, The Press and Journal (Aberdeen), 16 October 2010; J. Seddon et al, Public Sculpture of Sussex, Liverpool, 2014, p. 11; The Times, 8 December 1992, p. 17 (obituary).
Terry Cavanagh, March 2025