IMPORTANT IRISH ART Monday 23 November 2026 from 6PM

84 52 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) THREE WOMENWAITING oil on board signed lower right; titled on reverse 20 by 26in. (50.8 by 66cm) Frame Size: 26 by 32in. (66 by 81.3cm) Provenance: Waddington Galleries, Montreal; with Cynthia O’Connor, Dublin, 1990; Collection of Muriel Ryan Exhibited: ‘Recent Acquisitions for the 25th Irish Antique Dealers’ Fair’, Cynthia O’Connor and Company, Mansion House, Dublin, 16-21 July 1990, catalogue no. 24 Three Women Waiting is a characteristically brooding landscape by Daniel O’Neill that explores loneliness and longing - recurring themes in his oeuvre - while the dramatic coastal setting with women as protagonists are also familiar motifs for him. The treatment of light here is particularly important as it serves to reinforce a sense of nervous anticipation which has already been hinted at through the title. The sky has a Magritte-like quality to it - a paradoxical fusion of day and night - which has been created by the unsettled weather. The women huddle together on the sand in a clearing between grassy dunes, their long shadow drawing the viewer’s eye towards them; the focal point of the composition. They look out towards a headland and dark waters from the safety of the beach. Perhaps they are waiting for fishermen to return with their haul? Maybe their loved ones have sailed further afield and their return is uncertain? Whatever the reason, two smaller figures in the distance are walking away and the dark storm cloud hovering above creates an intentionally ambiguous atmosphere. Whether a storm has passed or is yet to come is for the viewer to decide. Three Women Waiting was originally acquired from George Waddington Galleries in Montreal, Canada. George was the brother of O’Neill’s gallerist in Dublin, Victor, with whom he began exhibiting in 1945 until his gallery’s closure in 1957. Following the closure Victor relocated to London, O’Neill followed and there he continued to represent him, sending work for exhibition with the Dawson Gallery, Dublin and to his brother in Montreal. The Montreal gallery hosted solo exhibitions of O’Neill’s work from 1959 until 1965. In 1968 a joint show was held with Canadian artist Iris Ballon and 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”.’ 1 An exhibition record for the present work has yet to be traced but it must date to post 1959; an earlier work titled Fishermen’s Wives2 was shown at the RHA in 1950 and was included in ‘Daniel O’Neill Paintings 1945-51’ with Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin. In that work two women wearing lace headdresses dominate the foreground, their husband’s vessels and a fishing village in the background. Adelle Hughes, October 2026 1 Reihill, Karen, Daniel O’Neill Romanticism & Friendships, Frederick Gallery Bookshop, Dublin, November 2020, p.110 2 Ibid., p.51 (illustrated & numbered 97) €25,000-€35,000 (£21,010-£29,410 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot5 2