ADAM'S - Important Irish Art Auction - 31st May 2017 (Click Lot title for more images and to Place Bid)

106

Oil on board, 51 x 67cm (20 x 26¼’’)

Signed

Provenance: The Collection of the late Sheila Tinney; Private Collection, UK.

Exhibited: RHA, Annual Exhibiiton1950, Catalogue No. 172;

‘

Daniel O’Neill Paintings, 1945-51

’ Victor Waddington Galleries Cat No. 10

Born in Belfast, O’Neill’s painting career coincided with the outbreak of the second world war. His romantic

depictions of human emotion, birth, love, death and suffering had instant appeal at his first solo show at Victor

Waddington Galleries in October, 1946. Under contract with the dealer until the late 1960’s, Victor Waddington

chose O’Neill’s pictures for touring exhibitions in New York, Amsterdam and London while at home, he selected

his paintings for annual shows and chose this work to represent the painter at the Royal Hibernian Academy in

1950.

In 1948, O’Neill spent several months in Paris. Titles in exhibition catalogues, ‘

Village in Normandy’, ‘Breton Girl,’

and

‘Condé’

in September, 1949 and May 1951 tell us the artist went on sketching holidays in coastal towns in

the north west. On his return to Conlig, Co. Down, O’Neill translated sketches into oil paintings for these exhibi-

tions and was known to model his wife, Eileen who had dark eyes and black hair for a number of these paintings.

Works from this period are characterized by O’Neill’s fascination with painting techniques and show the influence

of artists Utrillo, Van Gogh, Rouault and Vlaminck.

As dusk falls, two fishermen’s wives stand together waiting for the return of their husband’s boats in a coastal

fishing village. The appearance of a registration number with the letter ‘F’ on the side of a boat probably rep-

resents the chief fishing port of Fécamp in Normandy, to the northeast of Le Harve, located a few hours from

Paris. O’Neill accomplishes surface quality as well as a pervading sense of foreboding in the composition. In the

foreground, impasto has been applied to the headdress with a palette knife and the robe has been embellished

with decoration by using the end of a brush. Dabbing a sponge on the beach area and squeezing liquid paint

from a pinhole in the artist’s tube has resulted in a lace like effect on the neckline of the taller figure. The row of

boats and absence of activity indicate fisher folk have returned home after a day out at sea. The calmness of the

scene is disrupted by the darkening sky and uneasy expressions of the women. As light fades, sea birds leave but

the fishermen’s wives remain standing one behind the other in a supportive role as they stare blankly out into the

dark empty sea.

O’Neill’s exhibition at Waddington’s in 1951 received several favorable reviews. One art critic commented, ‘his

men and women have an innocent, far-away gaze, and they wear their scant garments with elegance…’ and further

praised the technique of this work ‘…modelling with the brush the deep pools of brown which give the eyes of his

‘

Fishermen Wives’

such daring candor…most of all he excels at making lonely skies of deep blue which create the

atmosphere he requires to bewitch us into believing in the absurdly mystical world of fancy. The fact remains that

he makes us believe.’ (

Irish Press,

21 May, 1951, pg.3)

Karen Reihill April, 2017

€ 25,000 - 35,000