I
rish
& I
nternational
A
rt
A
uction
M
onday
5
th
D
ecember
2016
at
6.00
pm
23
20 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) Three Boatmensigned lower left & titled on reverse
oil on board
50 x 67.5cm (20 x 26in)
Provenance:
Private Collection
€15,000-25,000 (£13,043-21,739)
Daniel O’Neill (1920 - 1974) was a Romantic painter born in Belfast. He was largely self-taught, although he briefly attended Bel-
fast College of Art life classes, before working with and studying under fellow Belfast artist Sidney Smith. He quickly developed
an expressionist technique, and strong romanticism, with imagery, often full of pathos, evoking the themes of love, life and death.
O’Neill’s first exhibition was at the Mol Gallery in Belfast in 1941. In 1946 he sold 21 pictures out of 23 at an exhibition at the
Waddington Galleries in Dublin and from then on exhibited regularly. In 1949 he visited Paris and was influenced by Georges Rou-
ault, Maurice de Vlaminck and Maurice Utrillo. In 1951 his work was shown in the Tooth Galleries, London and he also exhibited
there with Colin Middleton in 1954.
In the 1950s, O’Neill moved from Belfast to Conlig, County Down, where there was a small artist’s colony that included George
Campbell and Gerard Dillon. He lived in London from 1958 to 1971 and during his lifetime, O’Neill’s works were primarily exhib-
ited at the Royal Hibernian Academy. More recently, some of his paintings were shown at the Irish Museum of Modern Art as part
of a 2005 exhibition of Northern Irish artists. His work is represented in many collections including the Ulster Museum, Queen’s
University Belfast and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin.