Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 29th April 2019

76 59 Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) Isobel signed lower right oil on board 61 x 41cm (24 x 16in) Provenance: The Waddington’s Galleries, Montreal, Canada (label verso); Private Collection €30,000-€50,000 ($33,707-$56,179) (£25,423-£42,372) Like a Modernist version of a Byzantine icon, Isobel is a portrait of a woman seen as archetype, rather than an individual person. Her neck elongated, and facial features reduced to a series of bold lines, the sitter combines both timeless beauty and also reflects the influence of Oceanic and African art. The face of Isobel is a mask—not unlike the faces of the women in Picasso’s Le Demoiselle d’Avignon . The painting is as much a study in the colour harmonies of blues, golden browns and ochres, is it is a representation of a person. It is romantic in feeling, rather than realist, and reveals O’Neill’s essentially poetic imagination. As with most of O’Neill’s paintings, the date, location or identity of the people he depicted is not specified. But with her large dark eyes and hair tied back, in a Spanish style, Isobel was clearly an inspiration to Daniel O’Neill. Born in 1920, the son of an electrician, O’Neill was himself trained as an apprentice electrician, and worked for a time in the Belfast shipyards. He also worked as a housepainter. However, to further his interest in art, he took evening classes in life drawing at the Belfast College of Art. He became friendly with the artist Gerard Dillon, and worked for a time in the studio of fellow-Belfast artist Sidney Smith. The first exhibition of O’Neill’s paintings was held in 1941, at the Mol Gallery in Belfast, and shortly afterwards he was taken on by the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin, which provided an income, allowing him to paint full time. In 1949, O’Neill visited Paris, seeing at first hand the work of painters such as Vlaminck and Utrillo. In the early 1950s he moved with his wife and child to the village of Conlig, Co Down, where the artists George Campbell and Gerard Dillon were also living and working. In 1958 O’Neill moved to London, before returning to Belfast in 1971, three years before his death. Romantic in feeling, O’Neill’s paintings are full of a sense of loneliness and introspection. He painted many portraits of women, often setting his figures in desolate or nocturnal landscapes. This painting was shown at the Waddington Galleries in Montreal in the early 1960’s, and was in a private collection in the United States for many years. Peter Murray, March 2019