O'Driscoll, Mary (McKechnie Section 1)

The daughter of Stephen O'Driscoll (q.v.), with whom she worked for a period. One silhouette, signed 'O'Driscol 1874', is markedly poorer in quality than Stephen O'Driscoll's authenticated independent work, and can probably be attributed to Mary. It shows a mayor (presumably the Mayor of Cork, where the O'Driscolls lived) with his beadle. The figures are out of proportion, clumsily cut, and very roughly over-painted in body colour. No gold paint has been used; the mayoral chain, for instance, is erratically painted in yellow ochre. The two figures are placed against a roughly executed background of streaky pale umber wash. The piece (signed, as I have mentioned) is also inscribed 'Sketched on New Year's Day, 1874'. I have also seen a profile of a single figure (which, on stylistic grounds, may be ascribed to the same hand), equally poorly executed; Mr W. E. Fox-Smith acquired it unframed, with a collection of silhouettes, also unframed, by another Irish artist, Agnes Doherty (q.v.).

Ill. 543