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Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) BACKYARDS, DOWNPATRICK signed lower left; original inscribed label on ...

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Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974) BACKYARDS, DOWNPATRICK signed lower left; original inscribed label on ...
Daniel O’Neill (1920-1974)
BACKYARDS, DOWNPATRICK
signed lower left; original inscribed label on reverse
oil on board
51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
Exhibited:
Irish Exhibition of Living Art, 1953, catalogue no. 126 (£52-0-0)
Around 1948-49, O’Neill visited Paris for the first time and there finally
encountered the works of artists such as Utrillo and Vlaminck, previously known
to him only through book and magazine reproductions. As S. B. Kennedy has noted,
"the trip came as a revelation to him and, by the time he returned, his work had
been transformed". It also marked the beginning of a series of streetscapes, the
best known of which are Place du Tertre (1949) in the Ulster Museum, and Rue de
Paris, illustrated in the first issue of Envoy magazine in 1949. The two
Parisian scenes have much in common with Backyards, Downpatrick. The three were
all painted in winter and thus feature the silhouetted forms of deciduous trees,
their dark brown bare branches lightly stroked in, lending a temporality and
poignancy to each of the scenes. All three works are also composed on a slight
diagonal, with a jumble of building façades and gables pressing in towards an
area of pavement in the immediate foreground. Each work also relies heavily on a
restricted palette - what Cecil fFrench Salkeld identified as O’Neill’s "French
colouring" of red, white and blue, overlaid with rich yellow glazes. These
glazes lend O’Neill’s works their muted luminosity, or what the Irish Times
critic described as "the golden glow" of Backyards Downpatrick (see The Irish
Times, 13 August 1953).
€20,000-€30,000 (£14,000-£21,000 sterling approx.)