IMPORTANT IRISH ART 25 MAY 2026

36 21 Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) ROCKS NEAR BALLYCASTLE, COUNTY MAYO, 1909 oil on panel signed lower right; signed and titled on label on reverse 9 by 14in. (22.9 by 35.6cm) Frame Size: 19 by 23.5in. (48.3 by 59.7cm) Provenance: Walker Art Gallery, London 1919; John A. Costello, Dublin; Collection of Sir Michael Smurfit, Dublin; His sale, Sotheby’s, 23 November 2021, lot 136; Private collection Exhibited: ‘Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland’, Walker Art Gallery, London, 1-13 July 1912, catalogue no. 19; ’Aonach na Nodlag’, Rotunda Gardens, Dublin, December 1913, catalogue no. 362; ’Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland’, Mills Hall, Dublin, 23 February to 7 March 1914, catalogue no. 2; ’Drawings and Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland’, Little Art Rooms, London, 31 May to 21 June 1919 Literature: Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats – A Biography, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1970, illustrated no. 4 (titled Ballycastle Bay); Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. I, no. 7, p. 8; Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of The Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, Vol. III, no. 7, p. 251 This lot was in two important collections — that of John A. Costello (Taoiseach 1948-1951 and 1954-1957) and Sir Michael Smurfit, famous Irish businessman and art collector. Pyle writes: The artist stayed at Ballycastle in County Mayo in the Summer of 1909, painting some landscapes in oil and watercolour. A tonal view, of pinky grey rocks in the foreground and choppy light-coloured sea, looking out to further rocks and a dim horizon on a dull misty day. €30,000-€50,000 (£26,090-£43,480 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot21