Whyte's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 6 MARCH 2023 AT 6PM

68 52 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) OLD HOUSES, PAU oil on board signed lower left; titled and with Dawson Gallery label on reverse 24 by 20in. (61 by 50.8cm) Frame Size: 30 by 26.5in. (76.2 by 67.3cm) Provenance: Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Private collection; Adam’s, 5 December 2006, lot 31; Private collection Exhibired: ‘Daniel O’Neill’, Dawson Gallery, Dublin, May 1971, catalogue no. 15 Early in his career O’Neill was introduced to French art - Cezanne, Picasso et al - by Sidney Smith and Gerard Dillon. He spent some months in France circa 1948/9, most likely encouraged and supported by Victor Waddington, painting street scenes in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris. He he also travelled outside the French capital. ‘Village in France’ (Merrion Hotel collection, Dublin) is an example and depicts a street scene observed at a revealing obliquely orientated angle. He would, of course, have had the opportunity in Paris to view, at first hand, paintings by a number of modernist artists. It may be noted he paid homage to some of these artists, as in his painting ‘Modigliani Land’ (IMMA collection, Dublin). Pau, in southwest France, is close to Spain and located between the sea and the Pyrenees mountains. The mcomposition of ‘Old Houses, Pau’ extends, by horizontally layered and ascending stages, from a river side view of houses and their brightly coloured reflections in the water to a panoramic view of the blue green mountains and luminous sky. Two cypress trees flank and contain the central focus of the ‘flattened’ semi-abstract forms of the houses - reminiscent of Paul Klee in their structural, cubistic depiction and phosphorescent colour range. There are many examples of O’Neill’s interest in the structural build-up of architectural form, e.g. the buildings in ’Bunbeg Fishing Village’, Co Donegal and urban paintings of the Belfast Blitz and later The Northern Irelandl ‘Trouble’s. It may be noted that there was influential ‘give and take’ between O’Neill and fellow northern artists Gerard Dillon, George Campbell and Colin Middleton. The latter was also fond of exploring the artistic rewards of the semi- abstract. O’Neill in ‘Old Houses, Pau’, with its textured mixture of abstraction and lush naturalism, clearly demonstrates the enabling benefits of his brief sojourn in France. Prof. Liam Kelly February 2023 €20,000-€30,000 (£17,700-£26,550 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot52