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Catalog summary

Daniel O'Neill interior signed l.r.: D O'Neill oil on board 44.5 by 67.5cm.; 17½ by 26½in. Catalogue Note Like his friend Gerard Dillon, O'Neill was largely self-taught and had attended several life classes at the Belfast School of Art circa 1940.  More importantly for his development was his trip to Paris in the late 1940s probably sponsored by his then dealer, Victor Waddington.  Here, he was particularly inspired by the Expressionist works of Maurice Vlaminck whose influence is clear in the deep colour combinations of the present work where the intense blue hues of the seated woman's dress in the foreground contrast sharply with the darker tones of the figures in the background.  O'Neill's knowledge of avant-garde developments is also demonstrated by the prominent placement of an abstract canvas hanging on the wall in the centre background of the composition. Whilst the colour tones show a Continental influence, the compositional organisation of Interior owes rather more to his friend Dillon and to the latter artist's works such as Fish Eaters , sold in these rooms, 13th May 2006, lot 97. Dillon had first visited Connemara in 1939 and brought back with him, tales of an idyllic subsistence existence and a glorious physical landscape peppered with white washed cottages (see lot 86). In Fish Eaters, four men in traditional dress from Connemara are seated eating that day's catch and their pose is mirrored by the figures seated at the table in the background of Interior and indeed, in the traditional Connemaran waistcoat and shirt worn by the figure seated in the central background. O'Neill was himself an advocate of living a simple and uncomplicated life and lived in a cottage in Conlig, a small village on the Ards Peninsula in Co.Down. One of his neighbours by his cottage there recalled that during storms, the artist would creep outside in the middle of the night in order to fully experience the natural effects of thunder and lightning. When asked about his night time wanderings, O'Neill answered simply, 'it was really beautiful with the lightning flashing through trees' (O'Neill as quoted in James White, Gerard Dillon, Dublin 1994, p.41).  His night time experiences were clearly responsible for the dramatic tones of the present work.