The youngest of seven children, his father was a medical doctor, and his grandfather Dr Barry Edward O'Meara was Napoleon's physician on St. Helena.

Whilst studying and socialising in Paris, fellow students did notice a predilection towards moodiness and introspection in his personality, which is reflected in his work.

[3] In 1875, he visited the artists colonies, firstly in Barbizon, and then Grez-sur-Loing where he settled and eventually befriended Robert Louis Stevenson.

When the Osbournes left to return to California in 1878, O'Meara presented a portrait of himself painted by John Singer Sargent to Isobel, with whom he is believed to have fallen in love.

[1] There are a few characteristic elements of O'Meara's work: figures of lone women, often near water with bare autumnal trees, in evening light.

There is a sense of melancholia in his work which some have attributed to his personal misfortune: his ill-health, living in near poverty, and two failed love affairs.

[4] O'Meara was a popular companion amongst the English-speaking painters, including John Lavery, William Stott and Carl Larsson.