WHYTE'S IRISH ART 28 MAY 2018

38 Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) MORNING GLORY, 1945 oil on canvas signed lower right; titled on canvas verso; also with original typed label [It is the wish of Mr Jack B. Yeats that this painting shall be always kept under glass] and with James Bourlet label on reverse 14 by 18in. (35.6 by 45.7cm) Provenance: Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin; Where purchased by R.M.D. Thesiger. London, 1945; With a Mr William Macquitty, London; Christie’s, London (Sale II), June 1982, lot 144; Private collection Exhibited: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. II, page 646, catalogue no. 716 Literature: ‘Loan Exhibition’, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 20 June to 4 August and Tate Gallery, London, 14 August to 15 September 1948, catalogue no. 60 (organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain. Afterwards at Aberdeen Art Gallery and Edinburgh Royal Scottish Academy) Morning Glory depicts two travellers on the cobbled street of a dark deserted town. One sits on a suit- case while his companion stands in the foreground. He is staring into the strong morning sunlight that penetrates through a side-street. A lobster pot hanging from the wall suggests that this opens onto the sea. The figure’s face is transformed by the warm golden light of the dawn. With his hand drawn up to his chest, he looks as though he is experiencing a religious vision. His upright pose contrasts with that of his forlorn cohort who rests with bowed shoulders, his hands on his knees. His friend’s hat and baggage lie abandoned in front of him, in the gloom of the empty thoroughfare. Compared to the monochrome face of the background figure, that of the man in the foreground, is made of a cacophony of pinks, whites, yellows and blues. His jacket, ostensibly dark green, is formed out of a myriad of coloured brushstrokes. While the streetscape is dominated by sombre dark blues and greys that suggest the lingering dimness of night, traces of yellow sunlight are evident on the cobbles and blank facades of the buildings. A sense of heat emanates from the right-hand foreground of the scene. The word “glory” in the title accentuates the spiritual aura of the light-filled man in the foreground. Glory, used in the titles of several of Yeats’ late works, means thanksgiving or worship to God. Hilary Pyle suggests that this painting anticipates these visionary works of the 1950s. The arrival of the dawn is a momentous theme in them, a moment of revelation in which the natural world comes to life and brings renewed hope and sustenance to the nomadic inhabitants of Yeats’ paintings. Like many of these works, Morning Glory has a strong dramatic quality with the intense light suggesting that of a spotlight in a the- atre. It conveys the idea that the action is happening elsewhere, as if the two figures are waiting behind the scenes, ready to come on stage and perform. Dr. Róisín Kennedy April 2018 €80,000-€120,000 (£70,180-£105,260 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 38