The Hon. Hector John McDonnell (born 1947) is a Northern Irish painter, etcher, and author, specializing in architectural art, landscape, and portrait work.
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Early life and education
A younger son of Randal McDonnell, 8th Earl of Antrim, by his marriage to the sculptor Angela Sykes, and the younger brother of Alexander McDonnell, 9th Earl of Antrim, Hector McDonnell was born in Belfast. He grew up on the family estate at Glenarm, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read modern history. In 1965 and 1966, before going up to Oxford, he studied painting in Munich and Vienna.
Artistic career
McDonnell lives and works in Northern Ireland and New York, but maintains close links with Germany. In 1979, he was the winner of the Darmstädter Kunstpreis and held a Retrospective Exhibition at the Matildenhöhe, Darmstadt, in 1981. His first book, The Ould Orange Flute, was published in 1983.
A further Retrospective Exhibition was at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, from 2003 to 2004. The Belfast Telegraph has described McDonnell as "one of Ireland's greatest living artists".