WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 26 FEBRUARY 2018

39 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) SUMMER NIGHT oil on canvas signed lower left; titled on Dawson Gallery label on reverse 18 by 24in. (45.7 by 61cm) Provenance: Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Private collection; Adam’s, 28 March 2001, lot 88; Private collection Over the period 1960 - 1971, three exhibitions of work by Daniel O’Neill took place at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin. Reviewing the collection of paintings exhibited in November 1960, ‘J.W’ wrote in the Irish Times that O’Neill was ‘preoccupied with the beauty of womanhood, and many of his sitters recall the eyes’. Continuing, the critic noted that in the works shown, there was ‘a sense of pleasure in life which is an affirmation too positive to be regarded as melancholy’. While Summer Night may not have been amongst the paintings on display, the reviewer’s sentiments certainly resonate with the subject of this painting. In this work, O’Neill depicts a female figure in a languorous pose; her arms are raised behind her head, and her eyes are closed. By elongating the figure’s neck, and by emphasising the shape of her hips, the artist draws attention to the more sensuous aspects of the subject. This is further accented by the silk fabric which covers the woman’s arms and part of her torso. Painted in thick impasto of pink, white, and red, the colours of this fabric are echoed in the vase of flowers in the background, and the coverings on the bed. A final exotic detail is introduced through the string of dark green Tahitian pearls, with small dabs of white paint attracting the viewer’s eye. As with the colouring of the fabric and flowers, the form of the pearl necklace is reiterated through the inclusion of the moon in the background of the painting. This is one of many nude paintings that O’Neill completed throughout his career, and extant works on paper show his interest in drawing from the model. It is likely that when in Paris in the 1940s, O’Neill saw Édouard Manet’s Olympia, and other notable examples of the genre. An earlier treatment of the female figure, The Blue Skirt, 1949 (Ulster Museum), shows a debt to Gauguin’s Tahitian nudes in its bold handling, while the present work finds greater expression in the tactile and sensual aspects of the subject. Dr Kathryn Milligan January 2018 €20,000-€30,000 (£14,290-£21,430 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 39