Obituary

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28271, 8 May 1957, Page 2

Obituary

MISS DAISY OSBORN “No-one ever treated flowers as sympathetically as she did.” This tribute, by Mr W. S. Baverstock, secretary of the Canterbury Society of Arts, is one of many which have been paid the memory of Miss Daisy Frances Christina Osborn by friends who have learnt of her death in Christchurch last Friday. Miss Osborn was a most sensitive woman. As well as being an artist of note, she was active for many years in animal welfare groups and other fields of philanthropy.

Her flower paintings were always in demand and were bought by private collectors in many oarts of New Zealand. Four of her eight exhibits in the society’s exhibition in March this year were sold privately. Two of her works which are hung in permanent collections are “Gods,” in the Canterbury Society of Arts’ collection, and “White Camellias,” in the McDougall Art Gallery. In her earlier years Miss Osborn was an illustrator. Her interests in the field of art were wide. She went to Honolulu, and this trip had an influence both on her outlook and her painting. For six years she taught at the Canterbury University College School of Art, and while there won a number of medals. She taught metal craft, flower design and embroidery as well as painting. One of her most startling paintings was based on the Crucifixion. It showed, in a design similar to stained glass, the figure of Our Lord on the Cross, with the blood from His wounds flowing into the waters of the River Avon, on the banks of which were the churches of Christchurch.

Her father, Mr Alfred Osborn, was a fine engraver, and once engraved the whole of the Lord’s Prayer on a threepenny piece. Miss Osborn was a member of the Animals’ Rescue Society before the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed. She was interested in the activities of the Theosophical Society. Miss Osborn, who spent much of her life in sickness, was aged 69 when she died.