Daniel O'Neill

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

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 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 and after the 1941 Belfast Blitz 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 and was influenced by Georges Rouault, Maurice de Vlaminck and Maurice Utrillo. 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. He lived in London from 1958 to 1971 and his work in this period was increasingly introspective and often desolate. 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