WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 29 MAY 2023 AT 6PM

50 29 Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) THE WATERFALL GATE, 1944 oil on panel signed lower right; titled on reverse 9 by 14in. (22.9 by 35.6cm) Frame Size: 18.5 by 23.5in. (47 by 59.7cm) Provenance: Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin, 1944; Private collection, Dublin; Adam’s, 29 March 2006, lot 61; Private collection; Oriel Gallery, Dublin; Private collection Literature: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné Of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. II, no. 604, p.553 In The Waterfall Gate Yeats presents the viewer with a tightly focused composition comprising a view of flowing water seen through a portal flanked by what appears to be a wall, the left side of which is decorated with vegetation. The scene is bathed in bright light with the viewer’s gaze directed towards the centre of the composition through the use of bright whites and yellows and dramatic brushstrokes. The energy and movement of the water is felt through an impastoed application of paint in shades of blue, grey and white with organic material suggested in dashes of greens and yellows. The painted surface shows a diversity of technique with thinly painted areas and dragged brushstrokes showing the panel beneath. A more rigorous, generous application to express the vitality of the rushing water lends an ethereal quality to the work. Although the location of the present scene is not included in the title, it may depict a view of the waterfall at Glenmacnass, Co. Wicklow.1 Figuratively, however, the subject could also be drawing on memories from the artist’s life using its subject as a gateway. The theme of the waterfall is a recurring one in Yeats’ oeuvre and one which became synonymous with his youth as well as the beauty of nature. The subject has been treated as a standalone - as is the case with the present work - but also as a backdrop, most memorably perhaps in the important oil Memory of Boucicault and Bianconi, 1937 (Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland). That painting depicted Glencar waterfall, a place which held real significance for the artist and his family, with William Butler Yeats setting his early poem, The Stolen Child (1886) there - “Where the wandering water gushes...”. By 1944, when this painting was executed, the artist was 73 years old, two of his siblings, poet W.B. and his sister Elizabeth (known as Lolly) also an artist had predeceased him in 1939 and 1940 respectively. Some works from this period, such as And So my Brother Hail and Farewell for Ever More, 1945 (NGI), 2 drew on this sadness and one might safely assume that the artist was contemplating his own mortality at this juncture in his life. In The Waterfall Gate however there is no lonely figure standing in contemplation, the view is focused solely on the natural world with the waterfall - youth and beauty - as protagonist. Whether the artist is reminiscing on his youth or contemplating his own mortality and what awaits him down stream is left to the viewer to decide. Adelle Hughes May 2023 1 Another work on the same subject dating to 1944 recorded as number 603 (the present work numbered 604) in Hilary Pyle’s catalogue Raisonne of the oil paintings suggests this. 2 The title of this painting is an approximation of the final line of an elegiac Roman poem of the first century BC, in which its author Catullus laments the death of his brother. €70,000-€90,000 (£61,400-£78,950 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot29