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DANIEL O’NEILL (1920 - 1974)
Diane
Oil on board, 61 x 45cm (24 x 17¾”)
Signed, inscribed with title verso
Provenance: Mrs. J.J Stafford
Exhibited: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin
‘
Diane
’ was probably executed in 1955 when O’Neill painted a series of female portraits, ‘
Girl Fiesta’,
‘Jacqueline’
and
‘The Pearl Necklace.
’ Described by the poet John Hewitt as a ‘tall fair handsome
man’, O’Neill was known to attract female company and women feature strongly in his oeuvre
highlighting his female friendships and marriage to Eileen Lyle in 1943 and relationships with
Sheilagh Deacon in the 1950’s, Maureen O’Neill in the 1960’s and Margaret Allen towards the end
of his life.
Throughout his career, O’Neill was interested in painting techniques. He liked to use sable, hog
and camel brushes to add translucent glazes to the paint surface. To apply paint, he used a
palette knife, fingers, brush handles, crumpled paper, sponges and squeezed liquid paint from an
icing bag to create lace-like effects on clothes and still life studies. Natural light and perspective
were abandoned in favour of a glow that permeated from the paint achieved by the artists’ person-
al technique.
‘Diane
’ may represent Sheila Deacon who was his partner at the time or the model may have been
adopted from his fantasy world. Depicted against tones of blue, a colour favoured by the artist,
the model’s mesmerizing gaze, Modigliani-like features and lavishly coloured hat belong to another
era. O’Neill has deliberately ensured the clothes do not belong to a time or a place thus shrouding
her in mystery.
Remarking on O’Neill’s paintings during his solo exhibition at Waddington’s in 1955, a critic in The
Independent noted “Painting with assurance and indeed authority, he [O’Neill] now reveals himself
as an artist with something to say and the technique to say it beautifully. Every picture bears the
signature of his very personal and distinctive outlook.”
Karen Reihill, November 2015
€ 15,000 - 20,000