Gran's Treasures by George Bernard O'Neill

Born on 17 July 1828 in Dublin, George Bernard O’Neill was the ninth of fifteen children in a middle-class family. His father, who was a clerk, cannot have found it easy to support such a large family on a modest salary; the children would have been sent to work as soon as they completed a minimal education at the local school. George Bernard O’Neill was living in London by the early 1840s, and studying art at the Royal Academy Schools. Although there is no extant documentation, it is reasonable to suggest that he either fled the potato famine of the mid-1840s or was sent away by his family for his own good—with the hope that he might be able to make a successful career elsewhere. By 1847, at age 19, he was exhibiting regularly at the annual Royal Academy show, and beginning to attract attention for his skill as a Portraitist and a painter of anecdotal genre scenes of contemporary life.

Provenance: Not specified
Artist / Author: George Bernard O'Neill
Date of Work: 1866
Signature location: Not specified
Origin of Work: Not specified
Subject: Figures
Original Vendor/Source: Key Auctions
Details of damage: Not specified
Frame Style/Material: wood, glass, matte
Frame dimensions: 28 1/2 x 23 ½
Inner frame dimensions: 25 1/2 x 20 ½
Artwork dimensions: 19 1/2 x 14 ½