George Bernard O'Neill

British 1828-1927

George Bernard O'Neill was a prolific painter of charming genre scenes, often with children. He was born in Dublin and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1847. Manuscripts relating to this artist are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This is a fine example of the work of the Cranbrook Colony, to which O'Neill belonged. In all there were six members. Thomas Webster ( 1800-1866 ) settled in Cranbrook, a small town sixteen miles south east of Tunbridge Wells in 1856. The brothers F.D. and George Hardy, who were related to Webster on his mother's side had preceded him by a few years, while O'Neill, J.C. Horsely and A.E. Mulready divided their time between London and Kent, (apparently having second homes or country cottages at Cranbrook or nearby Willesley).

The chief influence on O'Neill's style was Wilkie; and beyond him, Dutch seventeenth-century genre painting. These models determined not only his subject matter but his preference for warmer colour schemes.

Humorous scenes of childhood remained central to his work and that of The Cranbrook Colony.

O'Neill began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1847, varied childhood subjects with genre scenes of wider scope and more robust humour.