Jack Butler Yeats 1871-1957. Painter and illustrator, born in London, the son of the painter, John Butler Yeats, (1839-1922) and brother of the poet, William Butler Yeats, (1865-1939).
***PLEASE NOTE: Correction to the catalogue, the medium should read 'Oil on millboard'*** Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Willie Reilly (The Singing Actor) (1902) Oil on millboard, 61 x 47cm (24 x 18 ½'') Signed Provenance: Sold in 1902 to John Quinn; his sale, American Art Galleries (New York), 10 February 1927, lot 236, bought by Ernest Boyd; With Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin; With Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Collection Vincent and Jacqueline O’Brien, Ireland 1971, thence by descent. Exhibited: Dublin, Wells Central Hall, Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland, 18 – 30 August, 1902, cat.no.23; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, on loan from 2017 to 2024. Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch, London, 1992, cat.no.3, p.4; John Quinn 1870 – 1925: collection of paintings, watercolours and sculpture (1926), repro p.159 as The Singing Actor. This very early oil painting is based on a scene from a play ‘Willie Reilly’ which was performed at the Mechanics Theatre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin in October 1901. The melodrama is based on an 18th century Ulster ballad which tells the tale of a Catholic farmer who elopes with the daughter of an Orangeman. He is subsequently deported for life for transgressing the Penal Laws. Yeats’s later oil Rise up Willie Reilly (1945, Private Collection) is based on the female ballad singer whose opening verse calls on Reilly to rise up and come along with her, a nationalist interpretation of the song. In the 1902 version the character of Willie Reilly stands on stage, in front of an elaborate set depicting a waterfall, a high mountain and a wooded landscape. In his later work, In Memory of Boucicault and Bianconi (1937, National Gallery of Ireland), Yeats uses a similar setting for a melodrama but here it is the real landscape of the Glencar waterfall. The complex stage set of the Mechanics Theatre includes a coulisse or piece of scenery that extends out into the stage and through which the actor must have appeared. In this claustrophobic setting, the figure proclaims himself, wearing a bright green riding jacket, fine riding boots and carrying a riding crop. His right arm with clenched fist is raised in a dramatic gesture. His mouth is open in song, and, in fact, the painting was also known as The Singing Actor. This middle aged man, with his curly wig, flushed cheeks and portly build, is far from a conventional romantic hero. Yeats told the Irish American lawyer John Quinn in 1903 that he was based on ‘a decayed old actor whom I saw in a theatre down by the docks in Dublin…’. [1] Yeats was an avid theatre goer throughout his life, writing several plays himself, including producing cut out miniature theatres for children. He reused the first verse of the ballad Willie Reilly in one of the latter, The Treasure of the Garden (1903). He frequented the Mechanics Theatre which he referred to as the Sailor’s Theatre and in his 1905 watercolour, Willie Reilly at the Old Mechanics Theatre, (1905, Private Collection), the audience is dominated by sailors.[2] The Mechanics Theatre was acquired by Annie Horniman in 1904 and became the home of the new Abbey Theatre. The painting which prefigures many of Yeats’s later theatre inspired works is painted in thick vibrantly coloured oil paint. The playhouse and music hall were popular subjects with artists interested in the interaction between the performer and the public such as the English painter Walter Sickert who admired Yeats’s work. The artificial stage setting is clearly evident in the prominent floorboards and the black light boxes in the foreground and in the shadow cast over the face of Willie Reilly. The painting was bought by John Quinn on his first visit to Ireland in 1902 and was included in the sale of his outstanding collection of modern art in New York in 1927. It was acquired there by the critic and writer, Ernest Boyd, author of Contemporary Drama in Ireland (1917). [1] Quoted in Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, I, p.4. [2] Jim Cooke, ‘The Mechanics’ Institute 1824-1919’, Dublin Historical Record, 52, (1999), pp,15-31. Dr. Róisín Kennedy, October 2024
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Window with a View of the Town (1951) Oil on canvas, 51 x 68.5cm (20 x 27'') Signed Provenance: Sold to Mrs Mabel Spiro at the exhibition in 1951; Collection Vincent and Jacqueline O’Brien, Ireland 1971, thence by descent. Exhibited: Dublin, Victor Waddington Galleries, Paintings, October 1951 cat.no.4; Belfast, Museum and Art Gallery, Paintings, (organised by CEMA, the Council for Encouragement of Music and the Arts), February – March, 1956, cat.no.15; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, on loan from 2017 to 2024. Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch, London, 1992, cat.no. 1080, p.984 (illustrated) An old man and a young boy stand together looking out through a window. Below them a town with a tall spire can be seen. The boy leans his head on his arm and gazes wistfully into the distance. His companion has a benevolent expression on his angular face which is skillfully sculpted out of white and blue paint. To the couple’s left the room opens onto a loggia with grass and trees in the garden beyond. A white hat on a table indicates that this is a summer day and that the two figures may have come in from outside to look out the window. An oval mirror on the wall behind them and the heavy drapes are indicative of the elaborate décor of the house. The subject may relate to Sligo which was the location for several paintings by Yeats which use interiors and windows as their core device. These include A Room in Sligo (1935, Private Collection) which shows a view of the mall through a large window. Evening Light (1943, Private Collection) also uses a large window on the right with figures in an old fashioned interior. Evening in Sligo (1937, Private Collection) recalls a formal dinner with an outstanding landscape visible through the window. The Window with a View of the Town may also be derived from a memory from Yeats’s childhood in that county where he spent a great deal of time with his grandfather. The use of doorways and openings off the main space is also a frequent ploy found in Yeats’s pictures of interiors. One of the earliest is A Dancer (Rosses Point Sligo) (1921, Private Collection) which while a more modest abode than the one in this painting, also shows a doorway opening onto a hallway on the left and extending into other spaces. This manner of framing the composition into a series of spatial elements derives partly from the work of such Post-Impressionist artists as Paul Cézanne. Yeats’s development of it in his work relates to his fascination with the creation of temporary performance spaces in theatre and the circus and from his desire to draw attention to the similar artificiality of space created within a painting. The agitated handling of paint that determines the fluctuating and dynamic surface of the painting is contrasted by the balanced geometrical division of the composition. The rectangular shape of the window opening is echoed by that of the open doorway leading into the loggia and the garden beyond. Strong vertical elements such as the door jambs and the beam of the loggia create a strong sense of structure and provide an almost theatrical setting for the poignant moment between the two figures in the foreground as they gaze out at another view. The dominant blue and white of the palette is indicative of shadow and is contrasted by patches of intense red and yellow and by the luscious green of the foliage outside. The modelling of the two figures in thick impasto is extremely sensitively handled and ably conveys the intimacy and tenderness of this memory of a shared moment between two different generations. Dr. Róisín Kennedy, October 2024
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) He Reads a Book (1952) Oil on canvas, 46 x 61cm (18 x 24'') Signed Provenance: Sold by the artist to Victor Waddington Galleries, December 1956; Collection Vincent and Jacqueline O’Brien, Ireland 1971, thence by descent. Exhibited: London, Wildenstein, Recent Paintings, 4 – 28 March 1953, cat.no.15; Dublin, Victor Waddington Galleries, Oil Paintings, October 1953, cat.no.4; Dublin, Municipal Gallery, An Tóstal: Irish Painting 1903 – 1953, April – July, 1953, cat.no.3; Belfast, Museum and Art Gallery, Paintings, (organised by CEMA, the Council for Encouragement of Music and the Arts), February – March, 1956, cat.no.38; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, on loan up to summer 2024. Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch, London, 1992, cat.no. 1111, p.1013 (illustrated) The extraordinary subject of this painting is a man reading a book while on horseback. Hilary Pyle suggests that it may have been based on something that the artist had seen.¹ The prancing form of the horse with its forelegs raised and its hindlegs firmly on the ground is highly unusual and suggests that the animal is performing a specific pose rather than galloping over the terrain. The theme may have originated in the context of a circus or stage performance seen by Yeats such as the circus in the West of Ireland that he illustrated for J M Synge’s In Wicklow, West Kerry and Connemara, published in 1911 or the double balancing act depicted in The Circus, (1921, Private Collection). In the former, a man stands on the back of a horse, balancing himself with a baton. Yeats revisited many such encounters in his later works. Most notably in the context of this work is the Cavalier’s Farewell to its Steed (1948, NGI) in which a swaggering figure of a man bids adieu to a merry go round horse. The subject may also have been inspired by Yeats’s love of American cowboy literature such as the bizarre frontier tales of Bret Harte. The rider seems oblivious to his surroundings or perhaps he is imagining his adventures on horseback inspired by his reading material. In Tir na nÓg (1936, Private Collection) Yeats depicts a young boy engrossed in a book while surrounded by the tiny figures of the land of youth which he has been reading about. In several other late works Yeats concentrates on figures reading, unaware of the world around them. These include A Giant Reading, (1942, Private Collection), Man Reading (1945, Private Collection) and The City (1944, Private Collection) where a man stands engrossed in his newspaper. Yeats sets the rider and horse in a vast open landscape. A strong opaque palette is applied in a manner that conveys the energy and vitality of nature with swirling clouds and the brisk movement of the horse in the empty terrain. Behind the horse and rider is a huge outcrop of rock which casts a deep blue shadow below them. To the right an expanse of pale mauve and purple mountains closes off the horizon creating a tremendous sense of vast, uninhabited space. In contrast to the delicate hues of the peaks, the bright orange and yellow of the horse with its noble head and flying mane and tail create a dramatic contrast. These powerful colours are augmented by the intense blue of the horse’s hooves and the surrounding landscape. The eyes of the animal are carved out of two strokes of thick impasto paint which along with the blue tip of its nose suggests the sensuous awareness of the beast to nature and the world around it. By contrast, the white form of the rider, his face masked by his book, seems an incongruous element in this scenario. The work could be seen as a riposte to Yeats’s Singing Horseman (1949, National Gallery of Ireland) where the crooning rider opens himself to the wild landscape. In He Reads a Book, the glorious figure of the horse dominates the composition, becoming a symbol of freedom and the intuitive intelligence of the animal kingdom. Dr. Róisín Kennedy, October 2024 [1] Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, II, p.1013.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Horsemen (1947) Oil on canvas, 46 x 61cm (18 x 24'') Signed Provenance: Sold to R. McGonigal at the Victor Waddington Galleries exhibition in 1947; G. Marriott, London; with Victor Waddington, London; Collection Vincent and Jacqueline O’Brien, Ireland 1971, thence by descent. Exhibited: Dublin, Victor Waddington Galleries, Paintings, 3-16 October,1947 cat. no.6; London, Victor Waddington Galleries, Paintings, 11 Feb - 13 Mar 1965, cat. no.20 (Illustrated); Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, on loan from 2017 to 2024. Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch, London, 1992, cat.no.834, p.752 (illustrated) Set against the dramatic view of Benbulben and the coastline of county Sligo, a man on horseback looks out over the extraordinary scenery. He holds the reins of a second bare backed animal which seems to be equally engaged in looking out towards the strand. Below them in the distance another rider on horseback gallops to the water’s edge. The work relates to several paintings of horses and their riders made by Yeats in 1947. Among Horses (1947, PC) also has a view of Benbulben in the background. Freedom (1947, PC) shows a horse galloping away from its owner. Others include Wind from the Sea, The Race and The Wild Ones and the theme is developed in such late masterpieces as Singing Horseman (1949, NGI) and My Beautiful, My Beautiful, (1953, PC). Yeats’s love of horses began in his childhood in county Sligo and is evident in his early depictions of race meetings and fairs in the West of Ireland in which the horse featured prominently. Its inclusion served to heighten the emotional content of the paintings where a direct connection between man and animal is manifest. Writing of Yeats’s work Thomas MacGreevy noted that ‘There are no lovelier horses in all painting than Jack Yeats’s. They have a miraculous elegance and he has always loved to paint them when they looked as though mere existence was sufficiently exhilarating, …’. [1]In Horsemen the stiff pose of the old man who watches intently is subtly counterbalanced by the relaxed and patient pose of his mount. The almost transparent body of the other horse is formed out of bright orange, white and yellow paint, making the beast appear almost like a phantom. Its legs are delicately moulded out of pigment. The noble animal seems tense and spirited and absorbed in watching the horse and rider below. The juxtaposition of men, horses and spectacular scenery marks the West of Ireland out as an exceptional place where the bond between humankind and nature is exceptionally close. The entire surface of the painting is full of shimmering movement caused by the diversity of brushstrokes and the pulsating application of colour throughout the work. The sky is filled with deep blue and white shapes that turn to dark misty cloud just above the head of the old man. In the centre of the composition the white sand of the beach appears to have been made using a form of decalcomania, a technique whereby a smooth object such as glass in pressed into wet paint and pulled away to create a vivid surface. Elsewhere in the ground beneath the horses’ hooves the paint seems to have been applied by swirling the brush into the canvas creating a visceral plane. Dr. Róisin Kennedy, October 2024 [1] Thomas MacGreevy, Jack B Yeats: An Appreciation and an Interpretation. Dublin: Victor Waddington, 1945. Dr. Róisín Kennedy, October 2024 Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Jack B. Yeats Painting & Memory, 4 Sept, 2021 – 6 Feb 2022, illus p.104
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) THE DUST ON THY CHARIOT WHEEL, 1945 oil on panel signed centre right; titled on reverse; also with Waddington Galleries, Leeds City Art Gallery and Solomon Gallery labels on reverse h:9 w:14 in. Provenance: Sold through Leo Smith, 1946; to George Black, Leeds; Private collection; Waddington Galleries, London; with Solomon Gallery, Dublin; Private collection Exhibited: 'Loan Exhibition', Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 20 June to 4 August 1948; 'Loan Exhibition', Tate Gallery, London (Organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain), 14 August to 15 September 1948, catalogue no.49 Literature: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné Of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. II, No. 1067, p.969 Jack Yeats is recorded as having painted 672 oil paintings in the 14 year period from 1941 to 1955; the most prolific years of his career. In 1945, when The Dust on Thy Chariot Wheel was painted, Yeats was in his prime as an artist at the age of 74 with a major exhibition held in Dublin - The Jack B. Yeats National Loan Exhibition - and the publication of Jack B. Yeats. An Appreciation and an Interpretation by Thomas MacGreevy (footnote 1) all taking place that year. The Dust on Thy Chariot Wheel was exhibited twice three years later in 1948 in Leeds and London and it was that same year a major retrospective of his work took place at the Tate Gallery, London. Hilary Pyle in her catalogue raisonné of his oil paintings writes: "The scene is the procession which announces the arrival of the circus in a country town, a supremely important cultural event for the locality. The artist recalls the procession which was the excitement of his youth with the ironic twist of humour of the title, and the image of a charioteer and his pair of horses. 'Dust on thy chariot wheel' was, it seems, a symbol of the hurly-burly of life for Yeats." Yeats drew regularly upon his early works and sketchbooks for the inspiration and composition of his more formal oil paintings and Pyle lists three early examples which explored the subject of the circus procession including the wagon or chariot. Of those listed, The Circus Chariot, 1910 (crayon and watercolour; 25.4 by 35.5cm, Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, NGI.6316) is perhaps the most interesting example to compare with the present work. A dark work on paper, it depicts a chariot drawn by three horses; driven wildly in perilous conditions by a man in ancient British dress (2), a circus tent within a barren landscape in the background. There is ferocious energy and freedom to this scene which tallies with the artist's early excitement of the circus experienced in his youth. The strength and skill of the driver is highlighted and shows the full figure of the man and his horses as they battle the elements. The Dust on Thy Chariot Wheel by contrast is a more meditative painting but it is equally epic. Neither weather nor landscape distracts the viewer here. The composition is condensed and the space the figures inhabit is unfamiliar but for the silhouette of a big-top to the right of the composition. Here the ethereal rider is composed and in full control of his obedient, Cerulean steeds; symbols of the freedom of Yeats' youth. The drama of the scene is felt through the physical act of painting. The panel is generously and exuberantly impastoed with an unbridled use of blues, reds and yellows reinforcing a sense of pageantry and occasion. In his essay, An Artist of Gaelic Ireland c.1902, George Russell described Yeats' use of colour - in words that read as almost prophetic in the context of his later oils (3) - "The colouring grows better every year; it is more varied and purer... always charged with sentiment, and there is a curious fitness in it even when it is evidently unreal... and yet we accept it as natural... it enters into the soul... it becomes part of the atmosphere of the mind". It is indeed "the atmosphere of the mind" where Yeats' later paintings dwell. They are a fusion of memory and myth, a blend of his lived experiences during his youth coupled with the reality of his present. The charioteer gazes upwards in expectation and at this juncture in the artist's life the passage of time and an acceptance of his own mortality must have been playing on his mind. But although he may have been contemplating the end, with his most productive years before him he wasn't about to let the dust settle. Adelle Hughes November 2024 FOOTNOTES: 1. Hilary Pyle in her catalogue entry for the present work notes: "Writing to Thomas MacGreevy in June 1932 about Mrs Duncan, who ran the Dublin Arts Club, and her recent illness, he commented, 'The Club indeed, she may hope, may once again become the "dust on her chariot wheels". 2. Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: His watercolours Drawings and Pastels, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1993, no. 706, p.166 (illustrated) 3. George Russell died 10 years before The Dust on Thy Chariot Wheel was painted.
Ely Arch, Entrance Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin. Pencil sketch. Framed. Provenance: From The Yeats Family Collection. PICTURES AND PRINTS Tuesday 26th November 2024 Approximate Time 15:08:56
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) THE TOP OF THE TIDE, 1955 oil on canvas signed lower left h:20 w:27 in. Provenance: Victor Waddington Galleries, London, 1965; Whence purchased by the father of the present owner Exhibited: 'Paintings', Waddington Galleries, London, 11 February to 13 March 1965, catalogue no. 29 (repro); 'Jack B. Yeats: A Centenary Exhibition', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, September to December 1971, catalogue no. 144 (col. repro), shown afterwards in Cultural Centre, New York, April to June 1972 Literature: Country Life, 30 July 1970, p.148 Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné Of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. II, No. 1067, p.969; Rosenthal, T. G., The Art of Jack B. Yeats, André Deutsch, London, 1993, no. 242, p. 243 This very late work by Jack B. Yeats depicts two men standing in a wild open landscape with low mountains in the distance. The ground is damp and colourful and evokes the West of Ireland, so beloved of Yeats. The scenery may have been inspired by Rosses Point, Co Sligo, according to Hilary Pyle. (1) The two men, one with his back to us, stand in theatrical, self-conscious poses. One has a long pony-tail, suggestive of the 18th century and he extends his left hand in a mannered gesture. His golden haired companion who is placed at some distance, holds his hand towards his face, as if he were listening. The subject of flamboyant figures, either solitary or in pairs, in a barren Western landscape is a familiar one in Yeats's late work, most notably Two Travellers, (1942, Tate), The Night has Gone, (1947, Private collection), There is no Night (1949, Hugh Lane Gallery) and That we May Never Meet Again, (c.1955, Private collection). Top of the Tide can be distinguished from these by the youthfulness of the figures. The colourful setting and the direct co-relation between the disposition of the figures and the relative tranquility of the landscape is reminiscent of the juxtaposition of mood between performer and nature in The Singing Horseman (1949, National Gallery of Ireland) where a lone figure, again in theatrical costume, travels on horseback through an austere West of Ireland terrain. The fragility of the figures in Top of the Tide is made evident by the fact that parts of them are transparent against the strong blues and yellows of the vibrant setting. They are also shown as discreet and separate and their faces are not visible to us, either because they have their back to us or because Yeats does not include facial features. For commentators like Samuel Beckett this aspect of Yeats's work awakens a profound sense of the tenuousness of human interaction. 'One does not realise how still his pictures are', Beckett wrote, 'till one looks at others, almost petrified, a sudden suspension of the performance, of the convention of sympathy and antipathy, meeting and parting, joy and sorrow.' (2) The skies are full of movement with swirls of dark clouds amidst the blue and white. The waterlogged topography further suggests the instability of existence in which all is subject to change, especially the human figure, whose mortality would have been significant to Yeats. He was in his eighties when he painted the work and aware of his own imminent demise. Hilary Pyle states that the work is one of the last works completed by the artist who inspected it in his studio in February 1956 and declared it ready for exhibition. (3) He died a year later in March 1957. Dr Róisín Kennedy August 2024 Footnotes: 1. Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London, 1992, II, p. 1087. Pyle also suggests that the figure in the cap may be the Pilot of Rosses Point. 2. Letter of Samuel Beckett to Thomas MacGreevy, 14 August 1937, quoted in Conor Carville, Samuel Beckett and the Visual Art, Cambridge University Press, 2018, p. 128. 3. Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London, 1992, II, p. 1083.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Corner of the Square (1947) Oil on board, 23 x 35.5cm (9 x 14) Signed Provenance: Sold by the artist to Mrs Mabel Spiro, later Mrs Waddington, October 1947; Private collection, London; Theo Waddington, London; Private collection, Brussels, 1978, thence by descent to the present owner. Exhibited: London, Victor Waddington, ÔPaintingsÕ, April/May 1971, no.20, (col. repro); London, Theo Waddington, ÔOil PaintingsÕ, Oct/Nov 1978, no.14 (repro) Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonn of the Oil Paintings, London, 1992, no.840, illustrated p.757 Hilary Pyle has written of this painting: ÔA view of a corner of Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, from a window in the artistÕs apartment, on a cloudy spring day. This late urban landscape depicts the park in the centre of Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin. Jack B. Yeats lived in a flat in the house on the south east corner of the square from 1929 until shortly before his death in 1957. His studio was also located in this flat and he spent much of his later years in this vicinity. Unlike his other paintings of this location such as Morning in the City (1937, National Gallery of Ireland) or Little Sister of the Gang (1944, Private Collection), this is a pure landscape without figures. It focuses on the agitated forms of the trees in the square confined by the metal railings that surround them. To the right the dark imposing shadow of the Georgian terrace closes off the composition with railings and foliage of a window box sounding an organic and mysterious note. A pink tinge in the sky on the extreme right suggests that this is very early morning when the streets are still deserted, and nature dominates. The sky is turbulent with a mass of dark swirls crossing from the right, and thick white clouds painted in impasto prominent elsewhere. Parts of the sky have been scraped back to reveal the horizontal lines of the board support, typical of YeatsÕs later work. Elsewhere such as in the railings of the park, vertical lines have been scraped into the surface of the paint, drawing attention to the physical construction of the painting. The branches of the trees are made of thick yellow and green pigment and the swirling marks of the paintbrush are clearly evident here creating an intense sense of movement as the boughs sway in the breeze. The foreground, the broad roadway and pavement, is made of fluid paintwork adding to the sense of movement and making the city appear more like an exotic landscape than a quiet Georgian square with its private park in the centre of Dublin. Dr Risn Kennedy August 2024
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Two illustrations to 'The Woman of Three Cows' by James Clarence Mangan A pair, pen, ink and watercolour, 11.5 x 16cm (4_ x 6_'') Both signed, one with artist's monogram, the other in full Provenance: John Lynes, Lanarkshire; Sale, these rooms, 10 February 2003; Private Collection Exhibited: Dublin, Stephen's Green Gallery, 'Jack B. Yeats; Drawings and Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland'' No. 21 and 25; Dublin, The Gorry Gallery, March 2005, No. 39 and 40 Literature: A Broadside, No 4, seventh and last year (Sept 1914); Hilary Pyle, The Different Worlds of Jack B. Yeats, Dublin 1994, p. 270, No. 1969, 1970 Jack B. Yeats first became involved in the Arts and Crafts movement when he lived in Devon, publishing ÔA Broad SheetÕ and some little illustrated books for children with Elkin Mathews, the London publisher. About the same time his sisters set out to Dublin to establish an Arts and Crafts co-operative with textile artist Evelyn Gleeson, marketing handcrafted embroideries for which Jack provided some designs, and establishing the Dun Emer private press for which he designed bookplates and prints. The sisters left Dun Emer in July 1908 to form their independent company Ð the Cuala Industries. This was one month after Elizabeth Yeats had issued the first number of Jack YeatsÕs new illustrated monthly publication from Dun Emer, ÔA BroadsideÕ, which was to prove such a success under the Cuala imprint - running for seven years- and is today a much coveted collectorsÕ item. W.B. Yeats would revive ÔA BroadsideÕ nearly twenty years later Ð first with F.R. Higgins in 1935 and then with the writer Dorothy Wellesley in 1937 Ð where the emphasis was on contemporary English as well as Irish poetry, and sometimes music was included. Jack Yeats, along with other artists, was to contribute illustrations to this later more specialised, still monthly publication. Jack B. YeatsÕs ÔBroadsideÕ (1908-15) breathed the spirit of the Irish Renaissance. Original in its art and presentation, it looked back to traditional Irish broadsheets and broadsides of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where a sheet of popular verse was enlivened with a pictorial woodcut in black ink. ÔA Broad SheetÕ (1902-3) which he published with Pamela Colman Smith, had consisted of a single large sheet of paper, but for ÔA BroadsideÕ he adopted a smaller format, a folded sheet with one or two illustrated poems on the first two pages and one large uncoloured picture on the third page. Patrons received individual issues in plain blue envelopes, and handsome blue portfolios issued later enabled regular subscribers to store complete sets. Yeats published poems by modern writers such as Pdraic Colum and James Stephens, as well as old ballads and patriotic songs appropriate to the times. He did all the illustrations himself, and watercolour tinting was applied by hand under his instruction by the women assistants at the Cuala Press. ManganÕs poem ÔThe Woman of Three CowsÕ appeared in A Broadside in September 1914 in the seventh and last year of the set, when the subscription was 12/- a year, post free. James Clarence Mangan (1803 Ð 1847) was the essence of romanticism to lovers of Irish literature. ÔBorn to unhappiness, dowered with a melancholy temperament and a drifting will, he never found natural joy save, like Thomas Kempis, Òin a nook with a bookÓ and in the exercise of his art,Õ scholars wrote later, lamenting that Ôlike sundry other unhappy poets, he found joys less natural and sane in opium and alcohol.Õ He worked sporadically in the Ordnance Survey Office, and as a cataloguer in Trinity College Library, encouraged in his writing by intellectuals of his day such as Petrie and Todd; and he is remembered particularly for his recreations of traditional Irish poems such as ÔRisn DubhÕ (ÔMy Dark RosaleenÕ), and ÔThe Woman of Three CowsÕ, both of which appear regularly in anthologies of Irish verse. Yeats, made two illustrations for the poem Ð the third (uncoloured) illustration in this issue of ÔA BroadsideÕ, is a fair scene, entitled ÔHooplaÕ. Yeats seems to have gone to ÔThe Cabinet of Irish LiteratureÕ for his version of the poem. The collection of volumes of the 1880s had been revised recently and republished in the new extended edition of 1909 by his brotherÕs friend, Katharine Tynan Hinkson. Yeats included all nine verses printed there, and in this first illustration conveys the gist of the main part of the poem. A shabby man, whose attentions have been rebuffed, grasps his blackthorn and clutches his coat lapels at the same time as giving the stand-offish woman a piece of his mind (she meantime keeps a tight hand on the lid of her basket. He leans towards her, looking up into her haughty eyes, exclaiming Ð Ôyou it seems are big with vain ideasÕ (she is also much better fed than he is). He exhorts her not to be so arrogant, for Ôworldly wealth soon melts away, and cheats the very miser.Õ If Lord ClareÕs sons, OÕDonnell of the Ships, and other illustrious Irishmen (in his ranting the loquacious man gives a verse to each of the heroes he describes) were forced to bow to Fate Õas every mortal bows, Can you be proud, can you be stiff, my Woman of Three CowsÕ The drawing which captures the tension of sexual confrontation superbly, is coloured simply and skilfully with an ultramarine wash on the tinkerÕs scarf and on the neck of the womanÕs dress, with added touches of burnt sienna. In the second illustration the woman has managed to extricate herself from her unwanted suitor, and is seen departing in the distance, while the man broods fierily on their conversation, the final verse on his lips: ÔNow there you go! You still, of course, keep up your scornful bearing, And IÕm too poor to hinder you: but, by the cloak IÕm wearing, If I had but four cows myself, even though you were my spouse, IÕd thwack you well to cure your pride, my Woman of Three Cows!Õ The itinerantÕs blackthorn stick is propped significantly against the stone wall which the Woman of Three Cows is passing. Though Jack Yeats executed countless drawings for illustration, he never repeated himself. The personalities peopling the world of his imagination have all been observed from life and appear as individuals appropriate to whatever setting they are in. In these two striking examples illustrating ManganÕs poem, Yeats captures the characters and their emotional conflict to perfection, creating economic, animated, humorous images of great beauty. Hilary Pyle, 2005, courtesy of Gorry Gallery, Dublin, to whom we are indebted.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) On the Hazard (1911) Oil on panel, 29 x 38cm (11_ x 15Ó) Signed Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by Serge Philipson, Dublin, May 1948; Christie's, London, 20 May 1999, lot 132; Sotheby's, London, 6 May 2010, lot 39; Sotheby's, London, 19 November 2013, lot 81; SothebyÕs, London, 19 November, 2019, lot 32, where purchased by the present owner. Exhibited: Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1911, no.134; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 'Jack B. Yeats, A Centenary Exhibition', September - December 1971, no.28 Literature: Hilary Pyle, 'Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonn of the Oil Paintings', London, 1992, no.27, illustrated p.26 This early oil by Jack B. Yeats shows a group of cabbies playing cards by candlelight on the side of a carriage. The title, ÔOn the HazardÕ is a pun on the role of chance and unpredictability, and perhaps even the dangers of gambling, in the outcome of the game, and on a Dublin expression, Ôon the hazardÕ. This refers to the place where cabs waited for hire. James Joyce used it in Ulysses, (1922), when he wrote, ÔMr Bloom went round the corner and passed the drooping nags of the hazardÕ. Four men sit around the cab, one is perched on the top, and leans over to watch the game. Two, their faces lit by the candlelight, are engrossed in their cards. A fourth sits with his back to the viewer and is shown as a dark silhouette wearing a large hat and cloak. To the right the wheels and horse trappings of the vehicle and part of the waiting horse can be deciphered. The composition is cut-off adding a modern note to the subject. Hilary Pyle has suggested the influence of Caravaggio in the dramatic use of chiaroscuro (light-dark) in the composition. But also, and more feasibly, that of the French realist and political cartoonist, Honor Daumier.[i] Yeats, who owned few art history books, had a copy of Henri FrantzÕs book on the artist, which was given to him and his wife, Cottie, by his father and sisters in 1904.[ii] Yeats shared DaumierÕs interest in the lives of working class men and women and in the depiction of the impact of poverty on urban dwellers. The painting is dominated by deep brown tones which are alleviated by the bright yellow light and by flashes of intense blue and green, as seen in the neck scarf of one of the cabbies and in the design of the playing cards. To the right a dash of strong red indicates the reflection of light on the cab wheel. The light is skillfully used to delineate the poses and expressions of the cabbies who sit in a relaxed and companionable fashion. The face of the man looking down takes on a ghostly quality as its features are transformed by the shadows into a mask-like form. The two players, whose features are clearly presented, appear to be Ôpoker-facedÕ with clenched expressions that indicate their deep involvement and enjoyment of the game. The painting is a rare depiction of a forgotten aspect of Irish urban life, one that was also found across Europe and North America. Here YeatsÕs vivid and original composition, its close-up view of the interaction results in an intense and captivating work of art. The painting was acquired from the artist by the noted collector, Serge Philipson, a Frenchman who settled in Ireland, in 1948. Dr Risn Kennedy August 2024 [i] Hilary Pyle, A Catalogue Raisonn of the Oil Paintings, London, 1992, no.27. [ii] This is now in the Yeats Archive, National Gallery of Ireland, Y1/JY/24/1/6/66.
Jack B. Yeats – three books. The Different Worlds of Jack B. Yeats – His Cartoons and Illustrations (Pyle, 1994); The Art of Jack B. Yeats (Rosenthal, 1993); A Vision of Ireland – Jack B. Yeats (Booth, 1992)
Jack B Yeats: Manuscript letter from Jack B Yeats on his personal headed note paper to Sarah Purser RHA who was an Irish artist mainly noted for her portraiture. She was the first woman to become a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy SIGNED, dated April 11 1943
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871 - 1957) Crossing the Canal Bridge, from the Tram Top (1927) Oil on panel, 23 x 35.5cm (9 x 14) Signed Provenance: Sold by the artist to Leo Smith, 1944; The Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Ex Collection Peter Ledbetter; Auction Taylor DeVere's, where purchased; Ex Collection Patrick & Antoinette Murphy; Private Collection, Dublin Exhibited: Engineer's Hall, 'Paintings', Dublin February/March 1927, Catalogue No.18; Alpine Club Gallery, 'Paintings', London June/July 1930, Catalogue No.14; National Gallery of Ireland, 'Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art', Dublin April-July 2019. Literature: Hilary Pyle, 'Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings', London 1992, Catalogue No.326; Patrick J. Murphy, 'A Passion for Collecting: A Memoir', 2012, illustrated in colour; NGI, Donal Maguire Ed., 'Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art', 2019, illustrated p.104 This very unusual painting depicts a view from the top of a double-decker tram as it crosses the Grand Canal at Portobello. The no 15 tram ran from Nelsons Pillar via Rathmines to Terenure. The window gives a view onto the canal looking east towards Charlemont Bridge. It is night-time and the brightly lit interior of the tram and its window frame contrasts with the gloom of the outside world. The former is painted in dazzling orange and red paint, lending it a tactile appearance. The bizarre angle of the window suggests that the tram has just crossed the apex of the bridge. Beyond its confines the city appears both calm and mysterious. The sky is an intense deep blue, a colour that is enhanced by its proximity to the orange of the window frame. The regular line of the canal with its green banks, outline of trees and the flowing cascade of water evoke the regularity of the cityscape in that part of Dublin. Touches of white and yellow light indicate nocturnal activity. To the right the shadowy forms of pedestrians hurry along the street. Yeats painted several views from trams or trains, clearly enjoying the sense of distance and remove that such transport provided. He used the train and tram network extensively when he first moved back to Ireland in 1910, when he commuted regularly from Greystones to Dublin by rail. In the 1920s when he lived in Donnybrook and from 1929 Fitzwilliam Square, the subject became much more frequent in his oeuvre. One work, From the Tram Top, also painted in 1927, includes a self-portrait of the artist. The 1924 painting, The Canal from the Train, uses a similarly angled window to frame a prospect of the canal and its banks in sunlight. The intensity of the colours and the richness of the paint surface in Crossing the Canal Bridge along with the imposition of the framing device onto the landscape, makes this a deeply expressionist work that transforms a familiar location into an evocative unfamiliar spectacle. But, as always with Yeats, the physical construction of the painting remains paramount. Róisín Kennedy
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871 1957) The Water Steps (1947) Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 60.9cm (18 x 24 ) Signed Provenance: Sold to Victor Waddington Galleries, June 1948; C.E.Knight; Dr B. Collins; Sale, Christies, London 8 Nov 1990, lot 106; Sale, these rooms, 26 May 1999, lot 80; Private Collection. Exhibited: London, Victor Waddington Galleries, Paintings, Oct. 1947, cat. no.19; New York, Coe Kerr Gallery, Centennial Exhibition, Nov. 1971, cat. no.17; London, Victor Waddington, Oil Paintings, March 1973, cat. no. 18. Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, no. 843 (illustrated). This late Jack B. Yeats oil depicts a view of a quayside with a street scene in the upper level and the dark cool waters of the river and the grey stone walls of the quay below. To the right two figures climb down the steep quayside steps carrying buckets as if going to launder or to play in the depths below. Their companion leans over the stone wall looking on as they clamour downward. Beside him on the street a horse and jockey pass by, a strange intrusion into the otherwise urban setting. Two other figures stand on the left observing the scene. Hilary Pyle thinks that the work relates to a memory of Yeatss childhood which would make the town depicted, the Sligo of the artists youth. The bizarre inclusion of the horse and rider would also be more fitting to a country town than Dublin where Yeats lived for most of his life. The exploration of the subterranean world of the waterside in close proximity to the streetscape is a subject that Yeats explored in several other oils including Return from the Picnic, (1947, Private Collection) and Houses on the Bridge Road, (1945, Private Collection). The work is sumptuously painted in rich colours and thick impasto. The dark stone walls of the buildings and the quaysides are subtly delineated with touches of bright yellow and orange that come from the evening sun whose yellow haze dominates the top left-hand corner of the composition. This strong light turns the horse into a flaming orange phantom like apparition. Elsewhere touches of indigo across the composition introduce staccato notes of pure colour deep tones as opposed to the sharpness of the yellow and orange. Yeats creates a complex surface with interacting passages of paint that convey the effect of light and shade on the visual and tactile perception of the built environment. The human figures and the horse seem to be just temporary intrusions into this space. Róisín Kennedy, April 2024
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Squireen (1899) Watercolour 36 x 52cm (14 ¼ x 20 ½ ) Signed and dated 1899 Provenance: With Waddington Galleries, London 1961; Collection N. Bernstein, Dublin; With Theo Waddington, London, label verso; Collection John Temple Lang, Dublin, thence by descent. Exhibited : London, April 1961, Waddington Galleries, Early Watercolours; Derry, April 1964, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, North-West Arts Festival, cat no 34; Belfast, May 1964, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, May Festival, cat no 28. Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, Irish Academic Press 1993, no 196, illus. p.80. This early watercolour by Jack B. Yeats depicts a young gentleman on horseback. Its title, The Squireen, suggests as Hilary Pyle has written, a petty squire, of the type well known in Ireland at the time. The little squire seems a derogatory or familiar term for this self-important figure. He holds himself with one arm on the reins of the galloping mount, and the other is bent to his waist, allowing the squire to survey the countryside through which he passes at some speed. His smart blue jacket with buttoned cuffs and brown hat indicate his high status. Yeats was aware of the social class structure of rural Ireland and its different categories of male citizenry provided him with a major source of subject matter, especially in his early work. This theme culminated in twelve oil paintings that he made to illustrate George A. Birminghams Irishmen All in 1912. This included such characters as the Country Gentleman, the Minor Official, the Publican and the Squireen. The latter figure, as in other works also, is quite unlike his early manifestation in this watercolour. Wearing an overcoat, this heavy-set middle-aged squireen is quite unlike the young bounder of this painting. The horse is shown in full gallop with its legs curved up under its body, all four of them off the ground, thus adding to the literal elevation of the squireen. Painted in watercolour and gouache, the expansive sky is a complex evocation of a typical cloud filled Irish day. The clouds form delicate patterns that span the background, providing a dynamic setting for the figure. Thick white paint is evident around the legs of the steed suggestive of movement and of Yeatss careful delineation of the animals body as it moves through space. Already at this early stage of his career as a fine art painter, Yeats shows himself to be a master of the representation of the horse and an astute portrayer of character. Dr. Róisín Kennedy, April 2024
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) A CHAMPION (A CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPION), c.1902 watercolour signed lower right; with William Macbeth Gallery label on reverse h:14.50 w:10.50 in. Provenance: William Macbeth Gallery, New York; Sotheby's, New York, 5 June 2009, lot 95; Private collection Exhibited: 'Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland', 9 Merrion Row, Dublin, 18-30 August 1902, catalogue no. 1; 'Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland', Walker Art Gallery, London, 4 February to 4 March 1903, catalogue no. 6; 'Recent Watercolours', Clausen Galleries, New York, 31 March to 16 April 1904, no. 7 Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1983, catalogue no. 415, p. 116
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) THE FOURTH ESTATE, 1945 oil on panel signed lower left; titled on reverse h:9 w:14 in. Provenance: Victor Waddington Galleries, 1945; Captain Alan Hillgarth, Ballinderry; Private collection Exhibited: 'Paintings', Goodwin Galleries, Limerick, 21-29 September 1945, catalogue no. 9 Literature: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. II, No. 718, p.647 Pyle writes: The interior of a newsagents shop, with magazines spread on the counter. A cat sits on a row of books. Yeats equates the cat's position whimsically with that of the reporter in the press gallery.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) DISCOVERY, 1952 oil on canvas signed lower right; titled on stretcher on reverse h:24 w:36 in. Provenance: Victor Waddington Galleries, London; Private collection Exhibited: 'Oil Paintings', Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin, October 1953, catalogue no. 16; 'Peintures', Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris, February 1954, catalogue no. 30; 'Paintings (Organised by CEMA)', Museum and Art Gallery, Belfast, February to March 1956, catalogue no. 35; 'Later Works', Waddington Galleries, London, 6 March to 3 April 1958, catalogue no. 6; 'Paintings', Irish Section of the XXI Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, July to October 1962, catalogue no. 19; 'Paintings', Waddington Galleries, London, 28 March to 27 April 1963, catalogue no. 31 (repro); 'Oil Paintings', Waddington Galleries, London, 29 September to 21 October 1967, catalogue no. 31 (repro); 'Jack B. Yeats Retrospective Exhibition', Waddington Fine Arts, Montreal, 12 March to 5 April 1969, catalogue no. 21; 'Paintings', Hart House Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto, 11-27 February 1971, catalogue no. 19 Literature: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné Of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. II, no. 1126, p.1027 The distinguished London-based art critic, John Berger, who visited Jack B. Yeats in Dublin in September 1956, wrote to him about this painting a few weeks later. ‘In your canvas called Discovery, the explorer has to enter the cave, walk past the last lights that circle and fly as though they were moth and candle in one, and go even further, trailing a scarf of shadow – but then suddenly in the explorer’s close-up face it is the spectator who makes the discovery. Perhaps all art’s rather like that. But many must be richer for the discoveries that are made through your being the explorer – I among them’. [1] In this large, late work, a male figure dressed in theatrical costume with a naked torso, blue jacket and cummerbund rushes through a cave-like structure. The sea and sky are visible through its narrow entrance. The figure holds his hands in a strange gesture as if trying to find his way through the darkness. Above his head, a floating bird-like form of white, blue and red suggest, as Berger wrote, ‘the last lights that circle and fly as though they were moth and candle and one’. The use of this form is comparable to Yeats’s 1950 painting, The Truth, The Whole Truth which deals with a similar theme of revelation. [2] The intense expression of the man’s face, sculpted out of thick white and green pigment, registers a sense of deep curiosity as if he were searching for something in the depths of this new environment. The complex shadows cast by him on the walls of the cave to the left have an almost anthropomorphic quality. One wonders if Yeats was thinking of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave when he painted this work. Could this be the returning prisoner who can no longer see after being exposed to the light outside? The discovery that Berger refers to relates to Yeats’s ability to manipulate paint to suggest specific forms but also to allow them to remain evidently works of art. The bare walls of the cave are composed of raw canvas while the figure is created out of thick paint with flashes of light and shadow indicated by strokes of pigment across the surface of the canvas. His hands are remarkable for the complex mixture of colours and texture used in their creation. While intrigued by the subject the viewer remains aware of the physical construction of this as a work of art and by the ability of the artist to enable us to see or to discover this metamorphosis in such tangible form. Dr Róisín Kennedy, April 2024 [1] John Berger to Jack B. Yeats, 30 September 1956, quoted in Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Deutsch, London, 1992, II, p.1027. [2] Ibid.
Patricia Lynch and Jack B. Yeats RHA (1871 - 1957) The Turfcutter's Donkey, First Edition, London, J.M Dent & Sons, 1934, with 13 illustrations by Yeats, 5 in colour (including frontispiece). With original d.j. Printed at The Temple Press, Letchworth
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) A PROFESSIONAL MAN, c.1905 watercolour on card laid on board signed lower left; with Waddington Galleries label on reverse h:23 w:19.25 in. Provenance: James Adam, 5 April 1979, lot 85; Private collection; Taylor de Vere, 1989; with Trinity Gallery, London; Waddington Galleries, London; Private collection; Whyte's, 2 December 2019, lot 24; Private collection Exhibited: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats: His Watercolours Drawings and Pastels, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1993, no. 536, p.139-140 (illustrated) Literature: 'The Life and Times of Ireland by Jack B. Yeats', Theo Waddington's Irish Art Project, Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin, 10 September to 10 October 2008 Yeats was always fascinated by the social fabric of rural Ireland. His awareness of social class was sharpened by his travels with John Millington Synge through the Congested Districts Board in 1905, the year this work was painted. The two men noted the encounters between shopkeepers and wealthy farmers and the ordinary labourers in the illustrated articles that they produced for the Manchester Guardian. This splendidly coloured watercolour of a professional man in his frock coat is one of several paintings of different male occupations or types that Yeats produced at this time. The figure strides purposefully across the landscape in his urban attire with his incongruous umbrella and a red book, probably a ledger, in his gloved hand. The low-viewpoint and opaque application of paint enables Yeats to create a kaleidoscope of forms and colours in the sky and the rolling fields behind him. Dr Róisín Kennedy
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) TIDE COMING IN, BALLYCASTLE, COUNTY MAYO, 1909 oil on board signed lower right; titled on reverse h:9.50 w:14 in. Provenance: Sold by the artist to Leo Smith, 1946; Adam's, 5 July 1979, lot 69; Private collection Exhibited: 'Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland', Leinster Hall, Dublin, 8-21 December 1910, catalogue no. 27; 'Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland', Walker Art Gallery, London, 1-13 July 1912, catalogue no. 20; 'Drawings and Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland', Mills Hall, Dublin, 23 March to 6 April 1918, catalogue no. 6 Literature: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné Of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. I, No. 8, p.9 This early oil painting by Jack B. Yeats was painted after a visit to the north Mayo town of Ballycastle in 1909. Yeats had visited and sketched the area several times before, including on his travels with John Millington Synge in 1905 when the two men collaborated on a series of articles on the region for the Manchester Guardian. Yeats recorded scenes of the district in a sketchbook in 1909 (151) now in the National Gallery of Ireland. His archive in the museum also has a number of photographs of the town, taken on this visit. The artist painted several paintings of the scenery and the characters of the area, including two paintings of nearby dramatic Downpatrick Head and a depiction of two card players entitled A Night in Ballycastle which was reproduced in the Irish Review in 1911. (1) Tide Coming In, Ballycastle is a serene view of the rocky coastline with a headland dominating the horizon line. The restrained blue and pink, brown tones are applied in thick, opaque brushstrokes, producing a calm, flat surface in which the movement of the sea water is subtly conveyed. Yeats was accompanied on this visit to Mayo by his wife, Cottie and they seemed to have had a relaxing time. Yeats wrote to John Quinn, the New York collector from the May Hotel in Ballycastle in June 1909, telling him that when Quinn visited Ireland, 'perhaps you could come away to some quiet place like this for a couple of days. Where … you could lie on your back in the heather or on the rocks by the sea or tramp along the coast'. (2) Dr Róisín Kennedy, February 2024 Footnotes: 1. The Irish Review, 1, No. 2 (April 1911) 2. Quoted in Homan Potterton, 'Jack B. Yeats and John Quinn', Irish Arts Review, 9, 1993, p. 109.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) WAVES AT BOWMORE, ROSSES POINT, SLIGO, 1936 oil on board signed upper right; titled on reverse h:9 w:14 in. Provenance: Sold to Dermod O'Brien PRHA, 1936; Dr. Brendan O'Brien, Dublin; Private collection Exhibited: 'Recent Paintings', Dunthorne, London, 19 March to 15 April 1936, catalogue no. 31; 'National Loan Exhibition', National College of Art, June to July 1945 Literature: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné Of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. I, No. 472, p.429 Waves at Bowmore depicts the dunes and sea at Rosses Point, Co Sligo where the Garavogue River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Bowmore is a headland north of the town where horse racing was held during Yeats's youth and which he referred to in a number of paintings, especially Looking Down on the Old Racecourse of Bowmore (1944, Private Collection). The area, which was very evocative of his childhood and his lifelong interest in maritime themes, was very familiar to Jack Yeats. It was where his uncle Henry Middleton lived and where his favourite uncle George Pollexfen was a frequent racecourse visitor. This lively painting in which the turbulent waves of the sea interact with the sand and grasses of the land, is a subject, the boundary of land and water, that Yeats used in several pure landscapes such as Early Morning, Cliffoney, (1941), False Morning Promise (1945) and most notably, Fresh and Salt, (1944). In the distance to the left of the composition is the Black Rock lighthouse which was constructed to protect shipping in Sligo bay in the 1830s. The black band visible on its surface was only added to the colour scheme in the 1930s at around the time that Yeats painted the work, a remarkably contemporary reference. The whole surface of the painting evokes movement, with small strokes of pure colour depicting the sky, sea and land. The artist has used the handle of a brush or a similar implement to scrape back into the paint in the lower left foreground. This allows light into the dark green and further suggests the energy and dynamism of nature and the exuberant feeling of being present in such a bracing environment. The painting belonged to the artist Dermod O'Brien PRHA and was lent by him to the Jack B. Yeats National Loan Exhibition in 1945, just a few months before O'Brien's death. Dr Róisín Kennedy, February 2024
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871 - 1957) The Bruiser (1900) Watercolour 24.9 x 17.5cm (9 7/8 x 6 7/8) Signed twice, in watercolour and in pencil Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso; Collection of Dr Graham McCarthy, Stockholm; With Waddington Galleries, London, labels verso; Sale, these rooms, 5/12/2001, lot 89; With Theo Waddingtons Irish Art Project, labels verso; Private Collection, Ireland Exhibited: Dublin, Leinster Hall, March 1900, Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland and Elsewhere, cat.no.41; Oxford, Clarendon Hotel, October 1900, Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland; London, Walker Art Gallery, February 1901, Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland and Elsewhere, cat.no. 43; New York, Clausen Galleries, March/April 1904, Recent Watercolours, cat. no. 11; Dublin, The Dawson Gallery, Nov/Dec 1962, Watercolours and Pen and Ink Drawings, cat.no. 47. Literature: H.Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, cat.no. 500, p.131, where she describes the work thus: A boxer on his way into a changing room which is already crowded. To the left is the entrance to the ring, where some men and women are discussing the contest.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871 - 1957) Young John (1904) Watercolour 24.1 x 19cm (9 ½ x 7 ½) Signed, inscribed Provenance: Sold at the 1905 Dublin exhibition to Jack Geoghegan Exhibition: New York, Clausen Galleries, March/April 1904, Recent Watercolours, cat. no. 21; London, Guildhall, May/July 1904, Loan Exhibition of Irish Artists, cat.no.75; Dublin, Leinster Hall, October 1905, Literature: H.Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, cat.no. 500, p.131
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) 'Blue Jackets in Fancy Dress' (1897), also known as 'Men-o'-War(s) in Fancy Dress (Costume)' Watercolour over pencil, 35 x 18.8cm (13¾ x 7½) Provenance: With the Waddington Galleries, London; Mrs S. Levy, London; Exhibited London, Clifford Gallery - Watercolour Sketches, 1897, Cat. No. 7; London, Waddington Galleries - Early Watercolours, 1961, Cat. No. 17 (illustrated) Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats - His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels. Irish Academic Press 1993, Cat. No. 78, illustrated p. 68.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Strand Races, The Finish, (1906) Ink on Paper, 14.7 x 46.4cm (5¾ x 18¼) Signed Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Christie's, London, 9 November 1984, lot 72; Theo Waddington's Irish Art Project, label verso; Sale, Sotheby's, London 2015 Exhibited: London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Summer Exhibition of Irish Art, 21 May - 29 June 1913, no.71 Literature: Hilary Pyle, The Different Worlds of Jack B. Yeats: His Cartoons and Illustrations, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1994, no.2015, p.283
Jack B. Yeats, R.H.A. 1871 - 1957 Untitled: Interior signed with monogram (lower right) watercolour and gouache on paper unframed: 35.5 by 25.5cm.; 14 by 10in. framed: 48 by 38cm.; 19 by 15in. Executed circa 1908.
Jack B. Yeats, R.H.A. 1871 - 1957 Cygnets in Stephen's Green signed JACK B YEATS (lower left); titled and also inscribed SWANS IN STEPHENS GREEN (on the reverse) oil on panel unframed: 23 by 35.5cm.; 9 by 14in framed: 40.5 by 53.5cm.; 16 by 21in. Executed in 1925.
Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A. 1871 - 1957 The Trotter signed JACK B YEATS (lower left) oil on panel unframed: 23.5 by 36cm.; 9¼ by 14in. framed: 38.5 by 51.5cm.; 15 by 20¼in. Executed in 1925.
Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A. 1871 - 1957 The Donkey Show signed JACK B YEATS (lower left); titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas unframed: 46 by 61cm.; 18 by 24in. framed: 75 by 89.5cm.; 29½ by 35½in. Executed in 1925.
Yeats. Portrait of an Artistic Family. Hilary Pyle. Holberton. 1997. large format. dj. and Jack B. Yeats 1871-1957 a centenary exhibition. 2 attractive books
§ Jack Butler Yeats R.H.A (Irish 1871-1957) Inlet signed in pencil (lower right), inscribed from Sketch Book inscribed "... at B****** Point 1898" in red pen (on backboard), watercolour on paper (8.7cm x 12.7cm (3 3/8in x 5in))
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) On the Stones - The Cattle Market, Caledonian Road, Selling Cheap Nags, (c.1950) Indian ink on card, 35.5 x 52cm (14 x 20½) Signed Provenance: Waddington Galleries, London; Private Collection Exhibited: '25th Annual Exhibition', Art Society Belfast, 1905; 'Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland', Leinster Hall, Dublin, 1-20 October 1906, cat. No. 40; 'Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland', Walker Art Gallery, London, 3-29 February 1908, no. 43; 'Early Drawings and Watercolours', Victor Waddington, London 27 Oct - 18 Nov 1967, no. 10 (reproduced); 'Jack B. Yeats Retrospective Exhibition', Waddington Fine Arts, Montreal 12 March - 5 April 1969, no. 40 Literature: Manchester Guardian, 28 January 1905 (7); (reproduced); Pyle, Hilary, 'The Different Worlds of Jack B. Yeats. His Cartoons and Illustrations' Irish Academic Press, 1994, catalogue no. 651, p.117 (listed), p.119 (illustrated) One from a series of twenty-eight illustrations of life in the East End of London, called Pastimes of the Londoners. Intended as a book which was not in the end published, this illustration did appear in the Manchester Guardian in January 1905 when it was accompanied by an article by Jack Yeats.
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) The Woods in The Bay / The Woods and The Bay (1955) Oil on panel, 23 x 35.5cm (9 x 14) Signed, inscribed with title The Woods and The Bay verso Provenance: Wilfred Evill Collection; Miss Honor Frost, executor of the collection; Sale, these rooms, 12 February 1981, lot 53; Private Collection, Dublin. Exhibited: Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery & Museum, June/August 1965, cat. no. 283, label verso Literature: Hilary Pyle, A Catalogue Raisonné of The Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch, 1992, cat. no. 1182. The Wood in the Bay is one of Jack B. Yeatss last works. It was completed in August 1955 when the artist was living in Portobello Nursing Home and visiting his studio in Fitzwilliam Square to complete his paintings.¹ He died in March 1957, less than two years later. Hilary Pyle notes that in Yeatss final paintings there is greater abstraction of form and setting and a tendency to purer tones, the mood is more overtly spiritual.² This is evident in this delicate, ethereal landscape. Its palette consists of subtle greens and blues evoking a summer vista of open water and verdant terrain. The large blue silhouette of a mountain in the background has the shape of Ben Bulben. A copse of trees in the mid left, sculpted out of impasto, add texture and depth to the composition. In the right foreground touches of orange suggest the colourful flora of the West of Ireland, such as the exotic Montbretia. The blustery sky consists of vertical lines of white board visible through the blue. Elsewhere vivacious brushstrokes convey the movement of the clouds and the constantly changing environment of the Irish landscape. Energy is evident throughout the composition, from the sweep of water in the foreground to the quivering trees and shuddering clouds in the sky above. Dr Roisin Kennedy July 2023 1. H.Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil paintings, l, p.1083 Ibid.
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