WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART MONDAY 26 May 2025 FROM 6PM

68 42 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) SASKIA, c.1956 oil on board signed lower left; inscribed on label on reverse 24 by 16in. (61 by 40.6cm) Frame Size: 30 by 22 (76.2 by 55.9cm) Provenance: Collection of Dr. Kevin Moynihan, Macroom, Co. Cork; His sale, Sheppard’s, 7 November 2023, lot 180; Private collection Exhibited: Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA), National College of Art, Dublin, 16 August to 15 September, 1956 During his career Dan O’Neill painted a range of subjects: still lives, landscapes, seascapes, religious pictures and many figure studies. Whether in the guise of the bride, the actress or the muse - portraits of women remained a constant theme. His women, brooding and often taken out of time, could be hauntingly archetypal and melancholic; at other times dressed theatrically in historical costume. He often used a single forename for these portraits (Florence, Martha et al), as such rendering them more personal. Saskia is a Dutch/German name and Rembrandt’s wife, who was called Saskia, comes to mind. Rembrandt made many portraits of her - etchings, paintings and drawings. There is a painting in the National Gallery in London of Saskia which O’Neill may have seen in London or by way of an illustration. It is a loving portrait in which flowers play an important role. She holds a generous bouquet of flowers, as well as having flowers in her head band. In a sense, she becomes the Goddess Flora, registering the bounty of nature. We know O’Neill painted many studies of flowers e.g. ‘The Girl in the Flower Shop’ and ‘Flora’, In some of these paintings the figure almost becomes one with the flowers - a poetic synthesis. With O’Neill’s ‘Saskia’ we see a number of similarities with Rembrandt’s portrait of his wife. The lighting coming in from the left picks out sections of her dress and she seems bedecked with flowers, to be at one with nature. The light plays a dual role, rendering a spiritual affect, as well as spotlighting the emerging figure. Like Rembrandt, O’Neill often explored dramatic contrasts of light and dark. The sitter’s face is only partially revealed contributing to the mystic of the painting. The colours of red, green and white/cream, depicting and embossing her dress are enriched by his deployment of impasto. O’Neill often relied on rich colours and impasto to engender an out of time, visionary quality in his work. Saskia succeeds in staring us down. O’Neill is represented in private collections in Ireland, England, France, Holland, Sweden, USA, Canada and Israel. His work is also included in the following public collections; Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin, The Arts Councils of Ireland, The Municipal Gallery, Cork, The National Gallery, Melbourne and The Herbert Gallery, Coventry. Prof Liam Kelly, April 2025 €18,000-€22,000 (£15,250-£18,640 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot42