DANIEL O'NEILL (1920 - 1974)

Title: My Country (C. 1956) Medium: Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, (Framing Label Verso), Where Acquired by the Previous Owner; Christie's, The Irish Sale, London, May 19, 2000, Lot No. 48; Private Collection Framed When Daniel O’Neill titled this work ‘My Country’, he was evoking the sense of peace and tranquility he had found in the early 1950;s in Conlig, a village near Bangor in county Down. Born in the city of Belfast, O’Neill had led a peripatetic existence for most of his life, moving between Northern Ireland, London and Dublin. During WWII, he witnessed the bombing of Belfast by the Luftwaffe. In 1949, he travelled to France, absorbing the influence of Georges Rouault, Maurice de Vlaminck and Maurice Utrillo. After spending some years in London, he returned to Ireland, where, along with Gerard Dillon and George Campbell, he became a member of the Ulster Contemporary Group. In the early 1950s, O’Neill moved with his wife and child to Conlig, where Campbell and Dillon were also living. An accomplished painting, My Country dates from a time when O’Neill was enjoying success, with his work being shown in London, New York, Quebec and Dublin. The scene depicted is a pond, part of old lead mine workings at Conlig, with chimneys and buildings below a quarry cliff. On a bluff overlooking the quarry, two white houses stand out, amidst mounds of spoil from the mines. There is some artistic licence taken in depicting the scene; O’Neill has increased the height of the quarry cliff, and also the hills behind, adding a more visually dramatic and Romantic flavour to the painting. The colour and handling of paint reveal the influence of Vlaminck, with dark intense colours adding to the atmosphere of the work. Since O’Neill painted this scene, extensive landscaping and housing development has taken place around the old lead mine works, while the village of Conlig has now become essentially a suburb of Bangor. Born in 1920 in Belfast, O’Neill initially followed his father’s occupation, training as an electrician in the shipyards. He also attended evening classes at the Belfast College of Art, becoming friendly with the painter Gerard Dillon. After the 1941 air raids on Belfast, O’Neill salvaged wood from the destroyed buildings, and experimented with wood-carving. The first exhibition of his paintings was held that same year, at the Mol Gallery in Belfast, and shortly afterwards he was taken on by the Victor Waddington Gallery in Dublin. This provided him with an income, allowing him to paint full time, and to travel. He exhibited at the Waddington Galleries between 1946 and 1955. After his years in Conlig, O’Neill moved back to London. However the success of an exhibition of his work, held at the McClelland Galleries in Belfast in 1970, prompted him to return to Northern Ireland. He died in 1974, aged just 54. Dr. Peter Murray, August 2025 Image size: 36 x 50 cm.; framed: 50 x 65 cm. PICTURES AND PRINTS Tuesday 16th September 2025 18:15:50 Biography DANIEL O'NEILL (1920 - 1974) Daniel O’Neill, a self-taught Belfast painter, left his job as an electrician in the Belfast Shipyard in 1945 to pursue art full-time. His first major exhibition was with Victor Waddington in 1946, followed by shows at the Dawson Gallery during the 1960s. After spending several years in London in the late 1950s, he returned to Belfast in 1969, where he continued to produce his distinctive portraits and figure studies set against evocative landscapes. O’Neill’s richly coloured, expressive style earned him a reputation as a romantic painter, capturing mood and atmosphere with emotional intensity. His work has been celebrated in numerous exhibitions, including Ulster Artists (2010), A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism (2011), Gerard Dillon: Art and Friendships (2013), and Ireland: Her People and Landscape (2014).