Henry O’Neill (1798-1880)  "Portrait of a Gentleman seated...

Hammer

€250

Henry O’Neill (1798-1880) 

"Portrait of a Gentleman seated on a chair wearing a brown waistcoat with jacket and cravat c. 1838," watercolour on paper  29cms x 23cms (11 1/2" x 9").

Born in Clonmel (or possibly Dundalk) in 1798, orphaned at a young age and raised in Dublin by his aunt Sarah who ran a haberdashery in South Great George’s Street, in 1815 Henry O’Neill enrolled in the Dublin Society’s Drawing School. A prize-winning student, he designed lace patterns for his aunt’s business and in 1835 began exhibiting at the RHA, showing mainly views in Co. Wicklow. An early portrait by him (NLI) depicts the street character and balladeer “Zozimus”. He also worked for a time in TCD, painting a portrait of Bartholomew Lloyd, who was appointed Provost of the College in 1831. Other portraits by O’Neill include the pioneering medical clinician Robert James Graves. From the outset, O’Neill was politically active, becoming a member of the Repeal Association and a supporter of the Young Ireland movement. There is a strong nationalist flavour to his work, and in 1844 he recorded the rooms occupied by Daniel O’Connell, Charles Gavan Duffy and other members of the Repeal movement in the Richmond Bridewell prison, in a series of watercolours now in the National Museum. In the early 1860’s he published a pamphlet Ireland for the Irish, advocating an end to landlordism.

O’Neill’s talent as a portraitist is evident in this watercolour, which depicts a fair-haired young man—probably a student or academic—fashionably dressed in a coat, wing collar, cravat and waistcoat. The portrait is half-length, with the man’s trousers sketched in lightly. He is seated in a carved wooden chair, upholstered with green leather and bearing a stylised carving of an eagle on the side. The signature ‘H O’Neill’ can be seen, inscribed faintly on the chair seat.  Seated sideways, the man’s face is turned towards the viewer; his expression is bright and candid. With his right hand, he is about to turn the page of a book that rests on his lap. This may be the watercolour entitled The Student, exhibited at the RHA in 1838, or perhaps O’Neill’s Portrait of a Gentleman, shown at the Academy two years later.
*We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Peter Murray in catalogue these lots.