Daniel O'Neill (1920 – March 9, 1974) was a Romantic painter born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Biography

The son of an electrician, and himself an electrician by trade, O'Neill was largely self-taught, although he briefly attended Belfast College of Art life classes, before working with and studying under fellow Belfast artist Sidney Smith. He quickly developed an

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

technique, and strong romanticism, with imagery, often full of pathos, evoking the themes of love, life and death. The start of his painting career coincided with the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and after the 1941

Belfast Blitz The Belfast Blitz consisted of four German air raids on strategic targets in the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, in April and May 1941 during World War II, causing high casualties. The first was on the night of 78 April 1941, a small atta ...

he salvaged wood and experimented with wood carving. O'Neill's first exhibition was at the Mol Gallery in Belfast in 1941. In 1949 he visited

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and was influenced by

Georges Rouault Georges-Henri Rouault (; 27 May 1871, Paris - 13 February 1958, Paris) was a French painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, whose work is often associated with Fauvism and Expressionism. Childhood and education Rouault was born into a poor famil ...

Maurice de Vlaminck Maurice de Vlaminck (; 4 April 1876 - 11 October 1958) was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse, he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 were ...

and

Maurice Utrillo Maurice Utrillo (; born Maurice Valadon; 26 December 1883 – 5 November 1955) was a French painter of the School of Paris who specialized in cityscapes. From the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of ...

. A number of works followed on which his reputation largely rests, including ''Place du Tertre'' (1949), ''The Blue Skirt'' (1949), ''Knockalla Hills, Donegal'' (1951) and ''Birth'' (1952). His later work, largely brighter in colour, was seen by critics as less successful. In the 1950s, O'Neill moved from Belfast to

Conlig Conlig () is a village and townland in County Down in Northern Ireland. It is considered a suburb of Bangor. Mining The area includes extant ancient copper mines. Weapons forged with the copper from this mine have been found across Europe, ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, where there was a small artists' colony that included George Campbell and

Gerard Dillon Gerard Dillon (191614 June 1971) was an Irish painter and artist. Life Dillon was born in Belfast, he left school at the age of fourteen and for seven years worked as a painter and decorator, mostly in London. From an early age he was intere ...

. He lived in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

from 1958 to 1971 and his work in this period was increasingly introspective and often desolate. O'Neill returned to Belfast in 1971, where he died in 1974. During his lifetime, O'Neill's works were primarily exhibited at the

Royal Hibernian Academy The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the Royal Irish Academy, the academy retained the word "Royal" after mo ...

. Some of his paintings were shown at the

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art (), also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. It is located in Kilmainham, Dublin. History Irish art collector Gordon Lam ...

as part of a 2005 exhibition of Northern Irish artists.

Works

*''Place du Tertre'' (1949) *''The Blue Skirt'' (1949) *''Knockalla Hills, Donegal'' (1951) *''Western Landscape'' (1951) *''Birth'' (1952) *''The Artist's Studio'' *''Belfast after the Riot'' *''Bride and Groom'' *''The Clown'' *''Corn'' *''Cottages, Connemara'' *''December in Donegal'' *''Figure in a Landscape, Donegal'' *''Figures in a Landscape'' *''Invented Landscape'' *''The First Born'' *''Girl with a Red Bow'' (sold for Euro185,000 in 2005) *''Girl with Blossoms'' *''Girl with Doves'' *''The Reed Stooks'' *''Kathleen'' *''Mountain Road, County Kerry'' *''The Pearl Necklace'' *''The Pose'' *''Studio Interior'' *''Sunday Afternoon''

Exhibitions

*Mol Gallery, Belfast (1941) *Tooth Galleries, London (1951) *Tooth Galleries, London (1954) (with Colin Middleton) *''Recent Paintings'', McClelland Galleries (1970) *Royal Hibernian Academy *Irish Museum of Modern Art (2005) * ''Gerard Dillon, Art and Friendships'' Adams Auctioneers Summer 2013

Work in collections

*Ulster Museum *Queen's University, Belfast *Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Art, Dublin *The Taylor Gallery *

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand ...

References

* Karen Reihill ''Gerard Dillon, Art and Friendships'' published by Adams Auctioneers (www.adams.ie) Dublin Summer 2013 http://www.adams.ie/cat-pdf/20713.pdf

External links

*
Daniel O'Neill paintings on artnet
{{DEFAULTSORT:ONeill, Daniel 1920 births 1974 deaths 20th-century Irish painters Irish male painters Artists from Belfast 20th-century Irish male artists