Beschreibung:

Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974) Cold Spring Morning, Donegal Oil on board, 50 x 60.5cm (19¾ x 23¾'') Signed; inscribed verso Daniel O’Neill was, predominantly, a self-taught artist. In most circumstances, the lack of a formal education is seen as a trial to overcome but, here, it can be viewed as a blessing. Devoid of an academic formula, O’Neill’s works are instead laced with emotion. Each painting is wondrously applied to tell a story, their often enigmatic portrayals allowing for the story to twist and change alongside its viewer. Born to a working-class Catholic family in Northern Ireland, just as the South was struggling into independence, O’Neill’s life was peppered with hardship. Sectarianism and war followed him throughout his brief fifty-four years and O’Neill fell to alcoholism and adultery as a pacifier. As such, many of his works are fuelled by a melodic melancholy that captivates its viewer. Our emotions slow to match its steady hum and we become a receptacle for everything that the artist wishes to convey. During the 1950s and 60s, O’Neill made a habit of visiting Donegal to paint, in particular focussing on the area around Rathmullan. The subsequent Donegal landscapes are bereft of figures and, thus, O’Neill relies on colour to capture emotion. Thinning his oil paints to create softer glazes, O’Neill builds up his image to form a deep and complex artwork. In ‘Cold Spring Morning, Donegal’, this technique results in a brooding portrayal of pathetic fallacy in which the landscape becomes a vector for his grief. Muddied clouds obscure the morning sun and hang heavily with the promise of rain. The lake below mirrors their dark countenance and warns the viewer away from its frigid shore. Dark tracts of bog splice the foreground, separating us from the house at its centre. And yet, amongst this, the solid little building gleams in the meek morning light. It offers itself as a refuge and a foundation for hope. To label ‘Cold Spring Morning, Donegal’ as a simple landscape is to ignore its finer qualities. As a post-war romanticist, O’Neill never strove for dogged realism and starkly rejected the well-loved styles of Irish landscapists, Paul Henry Frank McKelvey and James Humbert Craig For O’Neill, his landscapes and figural works go hand in hand, each one boldly representing far more than a quick glance might lead us to believe. Helena Carlyle, August 2021 Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974) Cold Spring Morning, Donegal Oil on board, 50 x 60.5cm (19¾ x 23¾'') Signed; inscribed verso Daniel O’Neill was, predominantly, a self-taught artist. In most circumstances, the lack of a formal education is seen as a trial to overcome but, here, it can be viewed as a blessing. Devoid of an academic formula, O’Neill’s works are instead laced with emotion. Each painting is wondrously applied to tell a story, their often enigmatic portrayals allowing for the story to twist and change alongside its viewer. Born to a working-class Catholic family in Northern Ireland, just as the South was struggling into independence, O’Neill’s life was peppered with hardship. Sectarianism and war followed him throughout his brief fifty-four years and O’Neill fell to alcoholism and adultery as a pacifier. As such, many of his works are fuelled by a melodic melancholy that captivates its viewer. Our emotions slow to match its steady hum and we become a receptacle for everything that the artist wishes to convey. During the 1950s and 60s, O’Neill made a habit of visiting Donegal to paint, in particular focussing on the area around Rathmullan. The subsequent Donegal landscapes are bereft of figures and, thus, O’Neill relies on colour to capture emotion. Thinning his oil paints to create softer glazes, O’Neill builds up his image to form a deep and complex artwork. In ‘Cold Spring Morning, Donegal’, this technique results in a brooding portrayal of pathetic fallacy in which the landscape becomes a vector for his grief. Muddied clouds obscure the morning sun and hang h