WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 27th September 2021 at 6pm

20 11 Susan Mary (‘Lily’) Yeats (1866-1949) TREES AT NIGHT, c. 1928 silk embroidery on blue poplin ground inscribed on reverse 31.50 by 19in. (80 by 48.3cm) Frame Dimensions: 42 by 22.5in. (106.7 by 57.2cm) Pinhole visible on close inspection upper left. Otherwise very good condition. Presented in a free-standing frame by James Hicks of Dublin, 1928. The artist Jack B. Yeats said in an interview that ‘there is only one art and that is the art of living’ and that within this ‘painting is an occupation’. A gifted painter, his siblings were similarly gifted in their own chosen occupations, William in literature, Elizabeth in printing and, as exampled here, Lily in embroidery. The Yeats sisters originally moved to Dublin from London to join Evelyn Gleeson in her newly established arts and crafts enterprise, Dun Emer Workshops in 1902, where the printing of high-quality books and prints was overseen by Elizabeth and embroidery by Lily. The enterprise was named after Cúchulainn’s wife Emer who was renowned for her artistic skills, particularly needlework. However, after an acrimonious split with Gleeson, the sisters established Cuala Industries in 1908 taking their own areas of production with them. The ideology of both organisations was espoused in the original Dun Emer prospectus, which stated its desire to ‘make beautiful things’ using honest and native materials in ‘the spirit and tradition of the country’. Both were female enterprises and almost exclusively employed and trained young women as assistants in arts and crafts. Cuala was a Yeats family endeavour and it provided an outlet for each of their occupations but it was only in embroidery that the four siblings converged. Some of William’s poems were interpreted in needlework and Lily, Elizabeth and Jack provided designs worked by Lily and her assistants. Before moving to Dublin, she had established herself as a skilled artistic embroiderer working for six years in the late 1800s with May Morris, daughter of William Morris, in their world-renowned Arts and Crafts scheme. The output from May Morris’s workshop was admired by many, including George Bernard Shaw, for its marvellously shimmering silky texture, an effect Lily Yeats, the embroidery workshop’s most experienced assistant, took with her and incorporated in this Cuala piece. Lily was a regular prize winner at the Tailteann and Arts and Crafts Society exhibitions in Dublin. Cuala exhibited all their wares at various national and international arts and crafts exhibitions. Her embroidered pictures were exhibited as individual art works, examples of which are in the National Gallery of Ireland, and incorporated into fire screens and folding screens, such as The Four Seasons in the National Museum of Ireland, inset with four embroidered landscapes. It should be noted that Lily Yeats was represented in the first international exhibition of Irish art organised by the new Irish Free State in January 1922, ‘Exposition D’Art Irlandais’ in Paris with seven exhibits and at the first State transatlantic exhibition, ‘A Century of Progress Irish Art Exhibition 1933’, held in Chicago with five embroideries. The current work, a translucent moonlit woodland scene foregrounded by a wild meadow on her trademark blue poplin background is typical of her output and larger than most of her known pieces. The frame is by James Hicks (1866-1936), the most accomplished Irish cabinetmaker of his time. Dr. Billy Shortall, August 2021. €8,000-€12,000 (£6,840-£10,260 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot11