WHYTE'S EXCEPTIONAL IRISH ART MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2020

104 64 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) HEAD [YOUNGWOMAN] oil on board signed lower right; inscribed with both titles on reverse 16 by 12in. (40.6 by 30.5cm) Frame Size: 25 by 21in. (63.5 by 53.3cm) Condition: This work appears to be in very good condition. Board is stable. There is some slight cracking visible in the white painted area lower left. This has not led to flaking of the paint and appears stable. Some surface dirt visible on very close inspection. Provenance: Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Private collection; Mealy’s, 7 March 2017, lot 659; Private collection This Head by Daniel O’Neill is a sensitive and evocative portrayal of a young woman. The soft facial expression is matched by cool blue tones, highlighted by touches of yellow, green, white and ochre. The sweeping, visible brushstrokes appear to create a veil over the figure, which, when combined with her pensive expression, adds an ethereal and otherworldly aspect to the painting. The subject of the single figure, usually focusing on the head and face, was one that O’Neill returned to frequently in his oeuvre, regardless of the development of his painting style and technique. Shortly after O’Neill’s 1955 exhibition at the Waddington Galleries, Dublin, the Irish Times published a poem by Donald Davie titled ‘A Head by Daniel O’Neill’. 1 An English Movement poet and literary critic, from 1950-57 Davie lectured at Trinity College Dublin, and it is likely that he became familiar with O’Neill’s work during this period. A meditation on image and presence, Davie’s poem explores the role of looking and being looked at; of a viewer encountering the artwork and the imagined interaction that entails. He writes: ‘Old as the sill she sits on, gazing out / Upon the scene of all our darting loves, / Our looks that kill and move momentously, / Think she’s as puzzled as inscrutable. / Be still, not daunted, by her steadiness.’Whether written with the present work in mind or not, the calm quietude that Davie’s words invite are perfectly suited to this Head. Dr Kathryn Milligan November 2020 1 Donald Davie, ‘A Head by Daniel O’Neill’, Irish Times, 7 May 1955, p. 8. The poem was also included in Robert Conquest, New Lines: An Anthology (London: Macmillan, 1956), pp. 66-7. €15,000-€20,000 (£13,330-£17,780 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot64