Get under the skin of a Victorian genre painting ART FOR WRITERS

There’s always something to crank the mind over from Bridget Whelan. So, if yours is like mine, in need of an oil change now and again, have a go at the challenge.

bridget whelan's avatarBRIDGET WHELAN writer

Osborn_nameless

There is almost a ready-made story here. Nameless and Friendless is the most famous work of Emily Mary Osborn. She specialised in painting women in distress which has made critics describe her as a  “proto-feminist artist”.

This woman on hard times is a widow attempting to make a living as an artist. While offering a picture to a disdainful dealer, she is being ogled by two “swells” something which is probably a daily occurance.

From the little I know of Osborn’s life and from Germaine Greer’s book on women artists The Obstacle Race I imagine she knew a lot about the struggle to be recognised as an artist (and not ‘just’ as a woman artist).

What did this nameless woman do in the morning before she came to the dealers and where is she going afterwards? What’s the weather like? Is her cloak warm enough? And what is her name?…

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About Daniel Kemp

At the age of seventy-six, Daniel Kemp has started his second year of studying the science of Psychology at the Open University. He is a member of The Society of Authors and also a bestselling writer. However, in early September 2025, he was diagnosed with cancer. He is now in palliative care at home, being looked after by his ex-wife. When he was writing his novels, he enjoyed writing stories that appealed to those who liked challenging themselves to solve mysteries that were set out before their eyes, but they couldn't. His introduction to the world of espionage and mystery happened at an early age when his father was employed by the War Office in Whitehall, London, at the end of WWII. However, it wasn’t until after his father died that he showed any interest in anything other than himself! On leaving academia he took on many roles in his working life: a London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver, but never did he plan to become a writer. Nevertheless, after a road traffic incident left him suffering from PTSD and effectively—out of paid work for four years, he wrote and self-published his first novel —The Desolate Garden. Within three months of publication, that book was under a paid option to become a $30 million film. The option lasted for six years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company. All ten of his novels are now published by Next Chapter Publishing Company which has added an edition titled The Heirs And Descendants Collection, which holds all four books of that series, alongside an edition titled The Lies And Consequences Collection which contains all four volumes of that series. He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication and described as—the new Graham Green—by a highly placed executive of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of book signing events. He has also appeared on 'live' television in the UK publicising his first novel. Less
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