IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 9 MARCH 2026

60 38 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) CHILD PLAYINGWITH DICE oil on board signed lower left; titled on George Waddington Galleries [Montreal] label on reverse 16 by 20in. (40.6 by 50.8cm) Frame Size: 21 by 25in. (53.3 by 63.5cm) Provenance: George Waddington Galleries, Montreal; Private collection, France Child Playing with Dice depicts the solitary figure of a girl standing with her arms folded and leaning against what appears to be a craps table; a pair of dice are cast before her; she has rolled a 7. Behind her the figures of a man and woman prop up the counter in conversation with the barman. The viewer’s eye is drawn towards them by the use of white paint in the single glass sitting on the bar. Beyond this trio an opening into another space can be seen where it appears more figures are gathered. Through his use of earthy tones and a muted palette O’Neill evokes the smoky atmosphere of a bar with its stale air and dim lighting and, although artificially lit, injects that romantic quality one would associate with his moonlight scenes into this interior. The high ceilings and tall columns add to the sense of isolation and melancholy in the figure. Child Playing with Dice was acquired from the George Waddington Galleries in Montreal, Canada. Daniel O’Neill’s relationship with that gallery began with the inclusion of his work in their ‘Inaugural Exhibition’ in 1956. George was the son of O’Neill’s gallerist in Dublin, Victor Waddington, with whom he began exhibiting in 1945. This relationship was pivotal in O’Neill’s career, as the stipend he offered allowed O’Neill to concentrate fulltime on his art. By 1948 he was in a position to visit Paris and on his return he held his second solo exhibition with Victor Waddington at his 8 South Anne St premises. Regular solo and group exhibitions continued there until the gallery’s closure in 1957. Waddington’s decision to close his gallery and move to London greatly impacted his stable of artists; many were unhappy with their treatment and the financial implications which came as a consequence. Daniel O’Neill relocated to London at this time and there Victor continued to represent him, sending his work for exhibition with the Dawson Gallery and to his brother in Montreal. In her monograph on O’Neill, Karen Reihill writes in detail of their complex relationship and how, “After 1963 cracks appeared in this arrangement. Rumours of prices paid for some of his pictures in Montreal filtered back to O’Neill through his friends in Belfast and London. The discrepancy…caused tension between dealer and artist.” 1 George Waddington Galleries, Montreal hosted solo exhibitions of O’Neill’s work in 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1965. In May 1968 a joint show was held with Canadian artist Iris Ballon and finally, in the summer of 1973, the year before O’Neill’s death, a two-man exhibition with Jack B. Yeats took place. Theo Waddington (Victor’s youngest son) noted that, “Almost from the beginning, Daniel O’Neill was ‘one of George Waddington’s great successes’.” 2 Reihill writes, “There is no evidence that O’Neill ever travelled to Montreal to visit Waddington’s gallery in the period 1957-1970… but there is evidence that after 1963 O’Neill was unaware of exhibitions that took place in Montreal.”3 Adelle Hughes February 2026 Footnotes: 1 Reihill, Karen, Daniel O’Neill Romanticism & Friendships, Frederick Gallery Bookshop, Dublin, November 2020, p.118 2 Ibid., p.110 3 Ibid., p.120 €12,000-€18,000 (£10,430-£15,650 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot38