O'Reilly (McKechnie Section 3)

Recorded by Jackson (Dictionary) on account of one silhouette, owned at that time by a Mrs Dickson, which may possibly be the example (illustrated) now in my collection, which is, similarly, painted on convex glass. Although O'Reilly describes himself on his trade label as 'Portrait and Miniature Painter', he is not recorded in any reference books on portrait miniatures which are known to me. O'Reilly was also a drawing master, according to his trade label. There is no address on the label, which suggests that O'Reilly was an itinerant artist. Despite his apparently Irish origins, no information about him is available in contemporary Dublin records.

The illustrated example shows no evidence that O'Reilly used the customary fingerprinted base for his work, which is built up by brushwork and by varying depths of pigment. A needle was used very little, but certainly in parts where extreme highlighting was required (see the magnification photographs at the end of this Section). Both the silhouette (21/2 x 2 in.) and the frame (4 x 33/4 in.) are unusually small. The bust-line is of the concavity/convexity type. The profile is backed with card, not with a plaster slab (as was the work of William Hamlet the elder, q.v., who was in practice at about the same time and is the artist whose work O'Reilly's most closely resembles).

One trade label (illustrated) is known.

Ills. 1129, 1130, 1225