λ Hector McDonnell (Irish b. 1947) Musician and children Oil on canvasboard 35.5 x 45.5cm (13¾ x 17¾ in.) Painted in 1980. Provenance: Fischer Fine Art Ltd., London (cat. no. 16) Born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, McDonnell is the youngest son of the thirteenth Earl of Antrim. His mother, Angela Sykes, was also a sculptor and illustrator. He studied art in Munich and Vienna under secessionist sculpture Hans Wotruba and also graduated with a degree in History from Oxford University. He won the Darmstaedter Kunstpreis and has exhibited internationally as well as in his native Ireland. He is best known as a painter of everyday life and splits his time between Ireland and the United States. The present group of works were all painted in the 1980s in which he portrays people and buildings in his often dark and evocative palette. His compositions frequently only hint at the lives that they encompass - a snapshot of a moment, a glimpse through an open window, an open book on a window sill. The artist is interested in what these views and interiors tells us about the people that occupy them, but the story is always incomplete and the viewer is left to develop his or her own narrative.