Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974)
Girl with a Ruff Collar
Oil on board, 60 x 49.5cm (24 x 19½")
Signed

Provenance: With Jorgensen Gallery, Dublin, label verso

Art historian Dr. S.B. Kennedy reckoned that...

Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974)
Girl with a Ruff Collar
Oil on board, 60 x 49.5cm (24 x 19½")
Signed

Provenance: With Jorgensen Gallery, Dublin, label verso

Art historian Dr. S.B. Kennedy reckoned that the remarkable art dealer Victor Waddington, a central figure in the development of Irish 20th century art, “almost certainly” subsidised Daniel O’Neill’s sojourn in Paris towards the end of the 1940s. The stay was vital for the artist. He stayed in Montmartre and lapped up the atmosphere of the culturally rich, economically quite impoverished, bohemian locality. Kennedy notes the influence of two Maurices on his work: de Vlaminck and Utrillo. Their influence is perceptible thereafter in his strongly stated draughtsmanship and bold use of colour.

 

Rather than being drawn into Cubism and its offshoots, as was the case with many other Irish artists who took the Parisian route, O’Neill worked throughout his life in the representational tradition, though with a certain level of flexibility. That is, he wouldn’t be out of place in the context of the English Neo-romantic artists who flourished at the time. He had a good sense for the drama of a composition - at one point he designed sets for Synge’s Playboy at the Abbey.

 

His work is often notable for its wistful, yearning quality, which, together with his great technical skill, has made it particularly popular with a wide audience. Paintings of individual female subjects number among his best works. This timeless painting is one of them. Against a clear, cloudy background, the young woman looks dreamily at the viewer. She seems lost in her own thoughts and memories, a little melancholy, though a smile plays at the edges of her lips. Elaborately, stylishly dressed in several layers and colours, she sports a generous ruff. That, with the rest of her costume, and a certain otherworldly cast to the lighting, tends to place her back in time, through the centuries. O’Neill embellishes fine layers of oil with applications of pure, bright pigment, giving the image a jewel-like shimmer.

 

Born in Belfast, the son of an electrician, he followed his father into the trade, working for the corporation’s transport department and the shipyards. But even in his early teens he was drawn to art, studying books in the library and attending night classes at technical college. At work he opted for night shifts, painting during daylight. He was taken up by the fine painter and muralist Sidney Smith and befriended Gerard Dillon, exhibiting with him in Dublin in 1943. Victor Waddington’s support gave him the chance to establish himself as an artist.

 

Aiden Dunne, April 2023

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