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27
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
THATCHING IN THE SUN
ink over pencil
signed lower 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 74;
Private collection
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 draw-
ings 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 Lon-
don in 1897 entitled ‘When ferrets lie up and when rabbits are plentiful’, which was subsequently reproduced
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 cur-
rent 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 exag-
gerated awkwardness of the figure and the extreme perspective accentuate the primitive notions of the sub-
ject 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
€10,000-€15,000 (£7,870-£11,810 approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 27