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26
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
RABBITING
ink drawing
signed upper right; original Dawson Gallery label on reverse
13.5 by 12in. (34.29 by 30.48cm)
Provenance:
Dawson Gallery, Dublin;
Private collection;
Whyte’s, 18 May 2009, lot 73;
Private collection
€10,000-€15,000 (£7,870-£11,810 approx.)
Both pencil and ink drawings (lots 26 27) were originally acquired from the Dawson Gallery.
Each is inscribed on the back ‘Jack B. Yeats, Strete, N. Dartmouth, South Devon’, in the artist’s hand.
Yeats lived in Strete between 1897 and 1910, after which he settled in Ireland permanently. During these 13
years Yeats was a prolific illustrator, producing images for the Dun Emer and Cuala Industries in Dublin as
well as work for London based publishers. The medium and the technique of cross-hatching seen in the two
drawings are typical of his working method at this time. The drawings were probably made as designs for
printed illustrations but they do not appear to have been published. The subjects are of rural life, possibly of
Devon rather than Ireland. After settling in the West Country of England Yeats became fascinated by local
farming communities and his sketchbooks and watercolour paintings of the late 1890s are dominated by
scenes of English rural life. From 1898 onwards Ireland becomes a more significant theme. The subject matter
of both works refers to distinctive aspects of rural life, and possibly to the idea of different seasons.
Rabbiting is a rather humorous image of a determined hunter looking for his prey while his dog stands guard.
The latter appears to be modelled on Yeats’ own dog, ‘Hooley’ who features in many of the artist’s sketches
of domestic life in Devon in these years. The subject recalls another untraced work which was exhibited in
London in 1897 entitled ‘When ferrets lie up and when rabbits are plentiful’, which was subsequently re-
produced but has not been traced (1). A print of the latter was sold through Whyte’s as lot 26, 29 November
2005. The dominant trunk of the tree which forms the background to the scene is very stylised and indebted
to the current vogue for Art Nouveau which Yeats experimented with in his graphic work of the 1890s.
Thatching in the Sun also focuses on a single individual. A thatcher at work on a rooftop is depicted in
acute foreshortening which has the effect of flattening the thatch and the various tools strewn across it. The
exaggerated awkwardness of the figure and the extreme perspective accentuate the primitive notions of the
subject which could be either English or Irish in its origins. These drawings appear to date to an early period
in the artist’s development as a black and white illustrator before he had fully developed a distinctive style and
approach. Both show his knowledge of post-impressionist art and design and his skill at creating vibrant and
complex images from very simple subject matter.
1. H. Pyle, Jack B. Yeats. His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels , Irish Academic Press, 1993, nos. 46-
7, p. 63
Dr. Róisín Kennedy
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 26