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Daniel O’Neill (1920 - 1974)
Figures in a Landscape
Oil on board, 30 x 76cm (11.75 x 30”)
Signed, inscribed with title verso
Exhibited:TheWaddington Gallery Montreal (Gallery label verso)
As one of Victor Waddington’s most successful young painters, Daniel O’Neill was awarded regular solo and
group exhibitions, as well as a ready outlet for his work. For twelve years, this patronage allowed him to contin-
ue to produce paintings without the burden of having to seek promotion or critical response. However, when
Waddington left Dublin for London in 1956, this was to change.
For Waddington, the opening of his new Cork St Gallery in London presented new challenges. He had also
become interested in the work of the St. Ives painters, as well as in the international abstract movement and
while he continued to deal in the work of O’Neill, and Jack Yeats, Irish painting was no longer his chief focus.
He did, however, continue his promotion of O’Neill, albeit on a smaller scale, and organised two more solo
exhibitions for him at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin during 1960 and 1963. Subsequently, he also arranged for
two shows at The Gallerie Waddington, in Montreal.
The invitation card to the Montreal exhibition suggests that the first of these shows was held during the late
1950s, as the image on the invitation is typical of the work O’Neill was creating at this time. Interviewed by
An
Irishman’s Diary
1
- during the preview of his 1963 exhibition at the Dawson Gallery, O’Neill made mention
of his recent show at the Montreal Gallery.This reference suggests that it is probable that the second Montreal
exhibition was held during 1961 or 1962.
Figures in a Landscape
was one of the paintings exhibited in Montreal which happily made its way back to
Ireland, in the 1990s. Maureen O’Neill recalled that when he was asked what he painted, O’Neill usually gave
the cryptic response that, ‘he painted landscapes with people and people in landscapes’.
2
This particular work
bears some comparison with an earlier work Knockalla Hills, painted in 1951, which is in The Ulster Museum
collection. Both works have a similar mountain range backdrop and are alike in the treatment of the skeletal
trees and in the depiction of the silvery fallen tree limbs and grasses.
The unusual format (for O’Neill) is well and cleverly exploited in the various compositional devices he has
created.The horizontal landscape is relieved by the vertical trees going out of the picture plane on either side,
while the figures are re-emphasising the linear in their positioning. The six children, shepherded by a young
woman, gaze outwards, while the energetic treatment of their dress contrasts with the solemnity of their facial
expression.
The colour throughout is harmonious and muted giving unity and a timeless mood to the piece, while O’Neill’s
masterly use of impasto and glaze techniques impart interest to the various elements, inviting the viewer to
re-interpret the meaning of the scene. Daniel O’Neill had created a pictorial world of his own and it was com-
mented by the critic fromThe Irish Times that it was ‘as strange and exotic as any Xanadu, rich in colour and
sensuous in quality’, while The Irish Independent critic remarked: ‘rich with humanity, he makes the unequiv-
ocal statement in paint; his colour glowing yet controlled’
Anne-Marie Keaveney BA Fine Art (Painting) MLitt Visual Culture.
1
An Irishman’s Diary,The Irish Times, undated cutting from Artists scrapbook
2
O’Neill, M., interview Edinburgh, Scotland, 24 July 1999
€20,000 - 30,000