Cork artist Daniel MacDonald’s hunger for truth

The 19th century Cork artist, Daniel MacDonald, was the only painter brave enough to paint the Famine as it was happening, and Professor Niamh O’Sullivan is appealing to people in the Cork area to scour their attics for his valuable work.

CORK has produced well-known artists, such as James Barry, Daniel Maclise and John Hogan, but who, today, has heard of ‘Honest Dick’ Millikin, Charles Scottowe or John Henry Noblett? They were prominent in their day and many other, worthy artists have also slipped into obscurity — for example, the McDaniel/Macdonald dynasty.

Daniel MacDonald (1820-1853) did the only known painting of the Great Famine, which was titled ‘An Irish Peasant Family Discovering the Blight of their Store’.