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87
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
FIGURES GATHERED c.1904-06
gouache and watercolour on card
with Whatman Board [London] label on reverse; also with framing instructions in pencil verso
10½ x 14¼in. (26.67 x 36.20cm)
Provenance:
Private Collection, Maryland, USA;
Freeman’s, Philadelphia, 14 June 2016, lot 95;
Private collection
This early Jack B. Yeats watercolour depicts a scene in the West of Ireland in which two groups of farmers
exchange news and gossip. In the background horses and riders make their way along the horizon line,
heading to a meeting or country fair. The tall elderly man in the great red coat dominates the image. A
similar garment appears in Yeats’ watercolour, Waiting c.1900 (Private Collection, illustrated in Hilary Pyle,
Jack B. Yeats. His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, 1993, fig.13).
The theme of figures hanging around before the day’s market or race meeting began was a popular
theme in Yeats’ early work. A similar focus on men conversing is found in The Day of the Sports, 1904
(Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane). However, in Figures Gathering the sense of intimacy between the
two figures on the left is prevented by the discrepancy in their stature. Yeats adds to this by showing
the smaller man straining to make eye contact with his taller companion. By contrast the three farmers
to their right stand shoulder to shoulder in deep conversation. The seniority of the old man is further
suggested by his singular garb and by his straightened pose which set him apart from the other figures.
Yeats was acutely conscious of the different social classes of the inhabitants of the West of Ireland,
particularly after his visit to the Congested Districts Board with J. M. Synge in 1905.
He subtly refers to this in this work. The strong red of the coat contrasts with the bright green of the
grass on which the figures stand. These deep colours, and this combination in particular, is typical of the
hues used by Yeats in his watercolour paintings of the early 1900s. They reveal his awareness of post-
impressionist theories on colour as well as providing his contemporaries with a new and dramatic way of
experiencing Irish life.
Dr Róisín Kennedy
August 2016
€8000-€12000 (£6840-£10260 approx.)
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