Beschreibung:

Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974) Circus Children Oil on board, 35.5 x 53.3cm (14 x 20¾'') Inscribed verso Exhibited: Arthur Tooth & Sons, Colin Middleton Daniel O'Neill - Recent Paintings, 4-29th May, 1954, No. 17. Provenance: Sale, Sotheby's, 11/05/06, lot 89, where purchased by the present owner. Following the successful exhibition of Daniel ONeills first solo exhibition at Tooths Gallery in London in May, 1952 organised by his dealer Victor Waddington, Tooths contacted Waddington requesting a permanent representation of ONeill. Picture sales were difficult in Dublin during the Post war economic climate but remarkably ONeill sold over half of his pictures in London which indicated a new market for his work. Delighted with the news, Waddington told the writer John Hewitt the exhibition was very successful from a sales point of view�Ǫand they [Tooths] have ear-marked an exhibition time for 1954. In October, 1952, ONeills friend, Colin Middleton also held an exhibition with Tooths and it seems after this exhibition it was decided that Middleton and ONeill hold a joint show in 1954. Demand for ONeills work at Tooths gallery in London led his work to be included in Tooths annual exhibitions Today and Yesterday until ONeill left Ireland in the late 1950s. Born in Belfast, ONeill had little orthodox training except for a few classes at the College of Art, Belfast. He started painting with watercolours at the age of fifteen, and when possible spend all his spare time in the Belfast Reference library studying the Italian Renaissance painters. Working as an Electrical engineer in the Belfast Corporation Transport Department, he worked on the night shift so he could paint during the day. This continued for over five years until he was taken up with Dublin dealer, Victor Waddington in 1945. Several one man shows followed and his works were included in several exhibitions overseas; London in 1946, New York in 1947, and California in 1948. In 1948 he spent six months in France, mostly staying in Paris. Here he was given an opportunity to study painters he admired, such as Watteau, Rouault, Vlaminck, Utrillo and the Impressionists. In 1952 at just 32 years of age, he held a retrospective exhibition in his native city, organized by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts(CEMA). Recognition for his work resulted in the Laing Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and the Sutter Art Gallery in New Zealand and at home the Friends of the Down County Museum added his work to their collections in the 1950s. In the early 1950s ONeill was living with his then partner, Sheilagh Deacon in a small village east of Downpatrick in Co. Down. From 1953-5, ONeill moved away from darker moody romantic images to playful subjects with a fairyland narrative. This painting, Circus Children is similar in subject, mood and style to other works where the focus centered on visiting entertainers and children. In the foreground, three circus children have been interrupted by the artists request to paint their portraits. As with several works from this period, detail is not important and characteristically the appearance of short broken brush strokes with unmixed colour to achieve colour vibration is in keeping with the Impressionists. The sweeter palette reveals ONeills return to confidence and optimism after a dark period in his personal life. ONeill painted a scene from the Thames in 1952 which suggests he may have traveled to London to view his exhibition at Tooths and at the same time visited the 19th century Impressionist masters at the Tate or the National Gallery in London. Karen Reihill, November 2019 Daniel O'Neill (1920-1974) Circus Children Oil on board, 35.5 x 53.3cm (14 x 20¾'') Inscribed verso Exhibited: Arthur Tooth & Sons, Colin Middleton Daniel O'Neill - Recent Paintings, 4-29th May, 1954, No. 17. Provenance: Sale, Sotheby's, 11/05/06, lot 89, where purchased by the present owner. Following the succes