George Bernard O'Neill (17 July 1828 – 23 September 1917), was a prolific Irish

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

painter, from 1859 a member of the

Cranbrook Colony The Cranbrook Colony was a group of artists who settled in Cranbrook, Kent from 1853 onwards and were inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painters. They have been referred to as 'genre' painters as they tended to paint scenes of the ...

of artists.

Life and work

O'Neill was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

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 ...

, the ninth of fifteen children of a

Ordnance clerk. He arrived in England in 1837, went to school in

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

and was accepted at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

Schools in 1845. He was a successful student, regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1847 onwards, and gained a reputation as a painter of charming narrative scenes. 'The Foundling', exhibited in 1852, demonstrated his awareness of works by

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

combined with the appealing subject of an orphaned child. In 1855 O'Neill married Emma Stuart Callcott, a cousin of

John Callcott Horsley John Callcott Horsley (29 January 1817 – 18 October 1903) was a British academic Painting, painter of genre painting, genre and historical scenes, illustrator, and designer of the first Christmas card. He was a member of the artist's colony ...

. Through this marriage he entered Horsley's artistic circle and by 1859 was introduced to the

. Next year George and Emma leased a medieval timber-framed, 'Old Wilsley House', about one mile away from the town of Cranbrook and maintained it as a summer home and studio for many years. It became a setting for many of O'Neill's paintings. O' Neill's artistic manner was similar to that of Thomas Webster and

Frederick Daniel Hardy Frederick Daniel Hardy (13 February 1827 – 1 April 1911) was an English genre works, genre painter and member of the Cranbrook Colony of artists. Early life Frederick Daniel Hardy was born at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in Berkshire, the ...

. The close relationship between O'Neill and Hardy can be judged from their little painting 'The Surprise' where Hardy painted the interior and O'Neill - the figure (Wolverhampton Art Gallery). Scenes of rural life - virtuous, innocent, sometimes slightly comical, sometimes sentimental, painted on small domestic scale, appealed to middle-class customers. The height of his success was in the 1850s-1870s, when his works were eagerly collected by Midlands industrialists and the entrepreneurs of other industrial regions of the country. This feeling of public success was expressed in O'Neill's painting 'Public Opinion', which had been shown at the Royal Academy in 1863 (at present at the

Leeds City Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...

). O’Neill also kept a home and studio 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 ...

, where he spent the winter months participating in the capital's artistic life. In the 1870s, along with

George Henry Boughton George Henry Boughton (4 December 1833 – 19 January 1905) was an English-American, Anglo-American landscape and genre Painting, painter, illustrator and writer. Early life and education Boughton was born in Norwich in Norfolk, England, the ...

, he became friends with

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

and offered him moral support during the years 1877–78, when Whistler sued the critic

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

for libel. Although O’Neill's artistic views were in many ways contrary to these of Whistler, they both believed that the artist's aesthetic purpose gave validity to a work of art. Most of O’Neill's paintings associated with the Cranbrook Colony look like sentimental depictions of children and rustic families, but they might have been intended for more serious purpose. It was noticed that

''"children can be used to publicize the iniquities of the social system without seeming to attack the social structure; reform might well be achieved by appeals to the conscience through sentiment rather than by reasoned argument and criticism of an overly political character."''Roberts, Keith. 'The Cranbrook Colony' at Wolverhampton./The Burlington Magazine, Vol.119, No888. 1977

If so, O’Neill's images of children can be seen in the context of Dickens’ novels as a part of the social movements of that time. The following decades saw a significant decline in the quality of his works and in their popularity. He died in London on 23 September 1917, just two months into his 89th year, having not exhibited for the last 24 years of his life.

References

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, George Bernard 1828 births 1917 deaths 19th-century Irish painters 20th-century Irish painters Irish male painters Irish genre painters Painters from Dublin (city) 19th-century Irish male artists 20th-century Irish male artists

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links