lect.’ He had married during the interval. His name first appears in the catalogue of the Royal Academy in 1822, and he contributed to seventeen exhibitions in all up to 1840. He also exhibited with the Society of British Artists, of which he was elected a member. His contributions were always landscapes. In May 1826 he proceeded to Brussels, where he remained until the following year. While there he painted several successful pictures, but the expedition proved unfortunate from his being swindled out of a sum of money, under what circumstances is not stated. In September 1832 he went to Paris, and continued there painting and studying until the following May. He had intended to visit Italy, but was diverted from his purpose by the apparent friendliness of a person who proved to be a swindler, but who, without assignable motive, offered him introductions to influential residents near the Saar and Moselle. Having gone thither accordingly, he was so delighted with the district as to abandon his Italian tour and remain in Belgium and Rhenish Prussia until November, painting some of his best pictures. In 1839 his health began to decline, and his inability to work involved him in pecuniary embarrassment, from which he was partly extricated by the generosity of Sir Charles Coote in commissioning a picture and paying for it in advance. He died at Brompton on 7 Jan. 1841. ‘A spirit,’ says his biographer in the ‘Dublin Monthly Magazine,’ ‘of exceeding mildness; manly, ardent, unobtrusive, and sincere; generous in proclaiming contemporary merit, and unskilled and reluctant to put forth his own.’ His landscapes were usually small and unpretending, but, to judge by the specimens now accessible, of extraordinary merit. Like his friend Danby, he was a poet with the brush, and exquisitely reproduced the impressions inspired by the more romantic and solemn aspects of nature. Several of his works are at South Kensington, and there is a charming example in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. There are also two fine works by him in the National Gallery of Ireland: one a view on the Dargle; the other ‘The Poachers,’ a moonlight landscape with figures, a composition steeped in Irish sentiment.
[‘M’ (said to be G. F. Mulvany, the first director of the Irish National Gallery) in the Dublin Monthly Magazine for April 1842; Bryan's Dict. of Painters; Gent. Mag. 1841; Stokes's Life of George Petrie.]
O'CONNOR, JOHN (1824–1887), Canadian statesman, was born in January 1824 at Boston, Massachusetts, whither his parents had emigrated from co. Kerry in 1823. In 1828 the O'Connor family removed to Canada, and settled in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. They were agriculturists, and John O'Connor worked as a farm labourer on their land till 1823. In the winter of that year he lost his left leg owing to an accident while cutting down trees. He now became a student of law, and was called to the Canadian bar in 1854. He settled down to practice at Windsor. A conservative and Roman catholic, he took a strong part in local politics, and obtained the offices of reeve of Windsor, warden of Essex County, and chairman of the Windsor school board. In 1867 he was elected to the Canadian Legislature for Essex. In Sir John Macdonald's ministry of 1872–3 O'Connor successively held the posts of president of the council, minister of inland revenue, and postmaster-general. At the general election of 1874 he lost his seat for Essex, and remained out of the legislature till 1878, when he was chosen for Russell County. He entered the conservative government, again formed by Sir John Macdonald [q. v.], and held the posts of president of the council, postmaster-general, and secretary of state. In 1884 he was appointed puisne judge of the divisional court of queen's bench at Ontario. He died at Coburg on 3 Nov. 1887.
[Withrow's History of Canada; Rose's Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography; Canadian Parliamentary Debates.]
O'CONNOR, JOHN (1830–1889), scene-painter and architectural painter, born in co. Londonderry, on 12 Aug. 1830, was third son of Francis O'Connor by his wife Rose Cunningham of Bath. O'Connor was educated at the Church Educational Society's school in Dublin, but, being left an orphan at the age of twelve, began to earn a livelihood for himself and his aged grandfather, Francis O'Connor. His father and family were connected with the stage, and his mother's brother was lessee of the Belfast and Liverpool theatres. O'Connor began by assisting in scene-painting and acting as call-boy in the Dublin theatre. At the age of fourteen he painted scenery for Sir E. Tierney, and at seventeen for the Earl of Bective. After his grandfather's death in 1845 he became attached to a travelling company of actors as scene-painter, but the tour was unprofitable, and in order to secure his return to Dublin he was reduced to making silhouettes with the pantograph. On 2 April 1848 he arrived in London with introductions to scene-painters, and first obtained work at Drury Lane Theatre. In October of that year he
