(Main image: Oliver Osborne
'Alfie (with The Sleeping Guard and Leaves)',

2026
Oil and acrylic on herringbone linen)

Artist Oliver Osborne was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1985, but relocated to Berlin more than a decade ago, as the German capital has long been known as a vibrant - and more reasonably affordable - haven for creative types. He is now father to three young sons, who have notably begun to inspire his work.

Curiously, he originally found acclaim using the rubber plant - which has become a mid-century modern home design staple - as his primary model, for a period of more than eight years. But upon viewing Paul Cézanne's visceral portraits of his son at the iconic Impressionist artist's Tate museum retrospective in London in 2022, Osborne was struck with a wholly new inspiration - the results of which can be seen at his first San Francisco solo exhibition, intriguingly titled 'The Card Players', opening June 5 at the acclaimed gallery Jessica Silverman (and running through July 11).

Of course, many famous artists have done notable portraits of their children (click this link to read more about the subject), including the likes of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Berthe Morisot, whose painting of her daughter Julie with her dachshund is one of our absolute favorites. Osborne's decision to ultimately be counted amongst them was a simple one, as he explained it to Apollo Magazine in 2025: "Let’s just sort of be a proper painter and paint the things around me." Makes sense.

(Above image: Oliver Osborne
'Kit, Alfie, Leaves', 2025
Oil and acrylic on herringbone linen)

The title of the show comes from the name of one of the paintings - pictured second from bottom - which portrays one of his sons doing exactly that. And he imbues the Baroque influenced work with a direct reference to 17th Century Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, perhaps seeking to remind us of the timelessness of the popular pastime of playing cards.

Yet with 'Arezzo (The Sleeping Guard)' - pictured bottom - he time travels his son back to Renaissance Italy, dressing him as the character of the title, seen through an elegantly murky haze of color (Arezzo, by the way, is a beautiful historic city in Tuscany, located about 40 miles from Florence). Again he aesthetically references artists of the period, this time Italian of course - Filippino Lippi and Piero della Francesca.

What Osborne manages so deftly here is to reach beyond the obvious, and infuse his portraits with history, mystery and an emotional resonance that is not immediate, but demands quiet contemplation. And in bringing his children into his work, he has perhaps discovered himself and his essence as an artist.

It is worth pointing out that gallery namesake Jessica Silverman herself has a three-year-old daughter (she describes watching her grow up around her creative community as a "full-circle gift"), surely making it particularly meaningful to have the opportunity to present this exhibit.

(Watch: This 2020 video by Sotheby's gives insight into how the depiction of children in portraiture developed during the period of the Old Masters, generally considered as having taken place from medieval times through to the early 19th Century.)

(Below images from top: Oliver Osborne
'Multi-Figure Composition with Leaf', 2026
Oil and acrylic on herringbone linen; 'The Card Players', 2026
Oil and acrylic on herringbone linen; 'Arezzo (The Sleeping Guard)', 2026
Oil and acrylic on herringbone linen)