IMPORTANT IRISH ART Monday 23 November 2026 from 6PM

34 ‘Am I on the right road for the sea?’ is one of Jack Yeats’s late paintings that question the meaning of life - through characters that have become familiar through the years. His maternal grandfather in Sligo ran cargo boats back and forth to Liverpool, on which, at the end of a holiday, the family started their way back to the house in London. Jack, who stayed behind in his formative years, and went to school in Sligo, spent every spare moment on the quays, following the sailors into their homes to hear the gossip, finding the Gillen family especially friendly - and one or two of the Gillens featured in his paintings during his career. A young bright face under a sailor’s cap appears at the small window, or half door, of a cottage - perhaps a small pub or a shop in the country, a shelf full of glass bottles reflecting the warm vermillion of the doorpost. He is smart, with a neat moustache, and his face lights up as he leans in to catch the exact directions. Behind him the blue airy sky, and the lush green grass bordering the road, implying the positive nature of his journey, contrast with the darker uncertainty of the interior. In this work, Yeats symbolises the allegory of life, the simple existence he experienced in childhood exchanged for a journey with questions: but the buoyant appearance of the young man suggests that he is well prepared and knows he will find his way. Hilary Pyle, October 2026