43 / 138
I
rish
& I
nternational
A
rt
A
uction
M
onday
25
th
A
pril
2016
at
6.00
pm
43
49
Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) Restingsigned lower left & titled on reverse
oil on board
51 x 68.75cm (20 x 27in)
Provenance:
Private Collection
€30,000-50,000 (£23,437-39,062)
Daniel O’Neill was born in Belfast in 1920 and is considered one of Irelands finest Romantic Painters. In a review of O’Neill’s
paintings the Irish Times on 15th May 1953 referred to the “imaginative, often haunting, melancholic interaction between figure and
environment, mood and circumstance”.
O’Neill often painted landscapes with people in them but the Artist was mainly interested in landscape only as a means of represent-
ing the concerns and dreams of those who lived in it. This is a luminous painting, which perfectly captures the mood of an elegant
young woman reflecting on life as she looks out over the beautiful Irish landscape.
Gina Lynam in her thesis, 1996 TCD, entitled “Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) Landscape and Figure Painter” stated of O’Neill that,
“he imbued everything he painted with a delicate, dreamy mood of serenity tinged with a certain melancholy.” Perhaps this best
describes the subject painting which is an excellent example of Daniel O’Neill’s work.