A VICTORIAN painting featuring a girl from North Littleton which was expected to fetch more than £700,000 when it went under the hammer, failed to attract a buyer.

Feeding the Chickens by Walter Frederick Osborne was expected to set a new world record for a piece by the artist – making the fact it didn’t sell at auction all the more disappointing.

Bessie Osborne – no relation to the artist – is the girl in the painting, which offered for auction at Bonhams in London last week.

In the summer of 1884, Osborne and his artist friends Nathaniel Hill and Edward Stott set off for Worcestershire where at North Littleton, in October 1884, Osborne produced Feeding The Chickens.

The current auction record for an Osborne painting is £748,000, the sum paid at James Adam Salerooms & Bonhams in Dublin in 2001, for his 1901 painting, In The Garden, Castlewood Avenue.

􀁥 Do you know any more about Bessie Osborne?

Was she your grandmother or great grandmother?

If so, call the Journal on 01905 742385 or e-mail sarah.taylor@ eveshamjournal.co.uk.