signed, inscribed with title and dated on a label on the reverse
oil on canvas
25 by 16 inches
Vincent Van Gogh - Still Life: Pink Roses in a Vase, 1890 (Coll. Metropolitan Museum, New York)
A homage to Vincent van Gogh’s painting Still Life: Pink Roses in a Vase, painted in Saint-Rémy in 1890 (coll. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). It has become something of a cliche of O'Neill's art that he was a poor attendee at art classes at Belfast College, and was in effect self-taught: the present work, however, gives the lie to any idea that he did not take his art seriously, and is a highly important indicator of the influences that shaped it. It is easily forgotten that O’Neill was a longtime admirer of Van Gogh, and Homage to Vincent proves how seriously he studied him. Once the connection is made, the kinships are clear: both men espoused a direct and deceptively naïve approach to their art, imbuing their rich palette with a vivid and very personalised expressionism. This work is a beautiful, and very early, example of O’Neill’s art and an important historical document for any serious collector or student of his work.
For a long time O’Neill’s work has been undervalued, and although his prices are now rising this process is by no means complete: it seems to me that every Irish collector should be ensuring that his or her collection contains a Daniel O’Neill while he is still affordable.
O’Neill was born in Belfast, and initially took up his father’s trade, working as an electrician in the city’s shipyards. Although not a regular student, he attended a few classes at Belfast College of Art and painted in his spare time: this pastime was encouraged by his meeting with Gerard Dillon, who was a lifelong friend, and by the encouragement of the legendary dealer Victor Waddington. In 1945, with Waddington’s encouragement, he gave up his day-job and became a professional painter, holding his first one-man show in that year. By the late 1940s his work was being shown in New York and Beverly Hills: he had become a major figure in post-War Irish art and remained so for the rest of his life.
