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IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART · 26 SEPTEMBER 2016 AT 6PM
The McClelland Collection
98
Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974)
FIGURE IN A LANDSCAPE
oil on canvas
signed lower left
15¾ x 21¾in. (40.01 x 55¼cm)
Provenance:
de Veres, 30 November 2005, lot 15;
Private collection
Women and landscapes dominate in the oeuvre of Daniel O’Neill and the present example typifies
the artist’s expressionistic style and deeply personal reading of the Irish landscape. The mood and
colouring would suggest it falls into O’Neill’s later body of work characterised by a more vibrant palette,
a controlled technique and simpler motifs. The foreground shows his expert use of the palette knife and
creates a deliciously textured surface which contrasts with the sleek waters in the middle distance and
the temperamental skies above. The light, emanating from an unspecified source, lifts the mood of the
work and casts interesting shadows against the figure and her environment. An injection of colour in
the yellow of her blouse is picked up in warm tones of the soil beneath her and in the sandy shore to the
left of the composition. Flickers of yellow and subtle pinks also bring warmth to the scene in the delicate
clouds above this statuesque figure. She is O’Neill’s archetypal stoic female wearing what artist and art
critic T.P. Flanagan once described as “those timeless garments the painter created for his characters” and
her Mona Lisa-esque smile adds O’Neill’s ubiquitous element of mystery to the painting.
The uniqueness of Daniel O’Neill’s style can be attributed to his lack of formal training. He did attend
evening classes at the Belfast College of Art and he worked for a time in the studio of Sidney Smith but
he was largely self-taught and could not dedicate himself to painting fulltime until Victor Waddington
offered him a gallery contract in 1945. His first solo show was with Waddington the following year.
€30000-€40000 (£25640-£34190 approx.)
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