A collection of drawings and watercolours by Cork artist Daniel Macdonald display his skill as a draughtsman and his wry wit, writes Niamh O’Sullivan
A recently discovered cache of drawings and watercolours by Cork artist Daniel Macdonald (1820-1853), comprising some forty images gives a fascinating insight into life and society in Cork in the early 1840s and highlights Macdonald’s skill as a draughtsman, endorsing his reputation as an artist of note of the 19th century. While Macdonald died young, at the age of 33, he left a legacy of having painted contemporaneous paintings of the Great Famine. Macdonald was painting from the age of thirteen and, by the age of twenty-two, was on the managing committee of the Cork Art Union, where he exhibited eight works, including his highly original Sídhe Gaoithe/ The Fairy Blast (National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin).
Research into theoretical principles across the fields of art, science and aesthetics imbue Nuala O’Donovan’s work, writes Mark Ewart
Eamonn Doyle’s portraits of Dubliners are unposed, untroubled by vanity and full of momentum, writes Stephanie McBride
