Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974)
Mother and Daughters (c.1958)
Oil on board, 52 x 72cm (20½ x 28¼'')
Signed; inscribed with title verso

Provenance: With Agnew's London, stock label verso.

 

 

As...

Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974)
Mother and Daughters (c.1958)
Oil on board, 52 x 72cm (20½ x 28¼'')
Signed; inscribed with title verso

Provenance: With Agnew's London, stock label verso.

 

 

As the sky gradually darkens over the mountaintops, three female figures, a mother and her two daughters, pose side by side dressed in almost identical blue dresses and black shawls. The work is filled with an intense stillness, the surface of the sea like glass behind them, the mothers hands joined in silent reverence. By placing them in the immediate foreground of the painting, slightly off center and turning away from the viewer, ONeill gives the impression that they have paused momentarily on the road, before continuing on their journey. We wonder about this trinity of females, where they might be travelling to, if that is their home, the whitewashed cottage in the background.

The handling of the paint on the clothes and faces of the figures, quick coarse brushstrokes mirrors the treatment of grasses in the field behind them. ONeill often employed palette knives or sponges to embolden the surface quality, and in this work he uses hatched brushstrokes, particularly on the mothers forehead and neck to demonstrate the play of light on her face. This technique heightens the texture of the flesh, adding to the sensual quality of the work. Similarly the dashes of orange and green pigment running through the grasses, makes them appear as if they are swaying gently in the breeze. The three figures seem to almost merge with the landscape surrounding them, creating a harmonious balance between them and the natural world they inhabit. This might have been to suggest the clear and lasting affinity that existed between island folk and the land. Despite this the worlds that Dillon created through his painting always contained an certain strangeness, populated by recognisable figural elements but maintaining a distance from the viewer who cannot enter these timeless landscapes.

 

Niamh Corcoran, August 2018

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