Born in Cork, Daniel MacDonald, son of artist James MacDaniel, followed his father’s footsteps as a painter of portraits, genre scenes and caricatures. At the age of thirteen, his etchings were published in The Tribute. The young MacDonald painted local sporting events, faction fights and other entertainments of the Irish countryside. He made delightful sketches of the hedge-school master with his quill pen, the dancing master with his pumps flying, and the red-coated gentlemen of the South Union Hunt on horseback. He also painted one of the only canvases depicting the Famine in Ireland, The Irish Peasant Family Discovering the Blight of their Store, exhibited in London in 1847. After exhibiting at the RHA between1842-44, MacDonald moved to London around 1845, where he showed works at the British Institution between 1847 and 1851. As well as oil paintings, he produced many pen and ink drawings, a number of which are in the British Museum. His painting, Bowling Match at Castlemary Cloyne, acquired by the Crawford Art Gallery some years ago, is on exhibition in the Gibson Galleries.

The Dancing Master is a lively painting detailing a local community enjoying music and dance. MacDonald is one of the few Irish artists of the nineteenth century who depicted country people without excessive sentimentalising or idealising.

Donated by Tom & Marie Cavanagh, 2007