IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 29 SEPTEMBER 2025

66 46 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) GIRL IN A HEADSCARF oil on board signed upper left 15.75 by 11.50in. (40 by 29.2cm) Frame Size: 25 by 21.25in. (63.5 by 54cm) Provenance: Purchased in Belfast, early 1970s; Thence by descent to a previous owner Dan O’Neill’s career and reputation developed, especially in the 1940s, during his time with the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin. Waddington played a supportive and enabling role in his development and promotion. During that favourable decade and beyond, the artist explored a number of favourite themes - among them the emotional interaction of figures, in and with, the landscape, or, on a beach; domestic interior scenes; religious subjects and a body of female portraits. In his portraits of women O’Neill often drew upon the Italian tradition for their stylistic treatment, but was also influenced by the impact that so called ‘primitive art’ had on the development of European modernism. Some portraits have an Italianate three-quarters turn, at times with a rear window giving on to a landscape, à la Mona Lisa. Most portraits by O’Neill, whether depicting a bride, actress or model, are Madonna-esque. They often have a wistful presence; ‘Girl in a Headscarf ’ is pensive and thinking long. In this full-frontal portrait of a fine-featured young woman, her face is fixed in an intense stare and gazing directly at the artist and in turn at the viewer. O’Neill has beautifully modelled her face which is lit on her left side by moonlight, while her right cheek is cast with a glowing red shadow. Her oval and deep-set dark eyes are captivating. By his skilful, and sensuous use of white, pink and blue, he has registered the web-like characteristics of her veil and charged it with a luminous tactile, other worldly, quality. Her headdress is more of a veil, and perhaps part of a wedding dress. O’Neill has often used a mantilla, traditional in Spain for covering the head; a sign of humility in the Catholic Church, and often worn by women and girls at Mass. It is an accessory that O’Neill often deployed, as in his painting, ‘Echoes Past’, where the woman, in a more medieval costume, strums a mandolin. It may be noted that the wearing of the mantilla veil in the Catholic tradition registers an affinity with the purity of the Virgin Mary, and the devotion of motherhood. There is also a glimpse of what appears to be a pearl necklace, further reinforcing the symbolism of purity and transformation. Whether a garland of flowers, or a neck ruff, the veil, or mantilla affords the artist an opportunity to indulge in the use of rich impasto and texture, to set up a rich and decorative contrast with the woman’s more simply rendered and meditative face; the neutral background a Madonna blue. As in other works, with ‘Girl in a Headscarf,’ O’Neill has adroitly registered the subtle, emotional duplicity and disposition of the subject - by way of the revealing and challenging contrast of light and dark. Prof. Liam Kelly, September 2025 €15,000-€20,000 (£13,040-£17,390 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot46