18 by 24in. (45.7 by 61cm)

Title: PILOT SLIGO RIVER / PÍOLÓTA ABHANN SLIGEACH, 1927
Note: The pilot is a recurring figure in the work of Jack Yeats, always appearing as in Pilot, Sligo River, bearded in a peaked cap, and dark double breasted, marine style jacket. Hilary Pyle suggests that the figure of the pilot is based on Michel Gillen, who worked at Rosses Point when Yeats was a child living with his grandparents in Sligo. Gillen's job was to guide merchant ships from Rosses Point along the Garavogue River to the quayside in Sligo town, a journey of about five miles. Yeats' grandfather, William Pollexfen owned a large merchant shipping business that enabled his young grandson to travel frequently with the pilot on his journeys. The Yeats children were also regular guests at Elsinore, the summer home of their cousin, Henry Middleton, at Rosses Point, where they also encountered the pilot. The pilot became a figure of mythological dimensions. His job required great skill in navigation and sailing as well as a deep knowledge and understanding of the geography and conditions of the Garavogue and its environs. He appears in several of Yeats' drawings and paintings, often in or near the Pilot House, a look-out hut, which was located on the headland at Rosses Point, and from where he could watch for the arrival of ships into the river mouth. The remains of the hut survive today, close to the ruins of Elsinore. The exotic nature of the pilot was added to by the fact that he was often accompanied by a fiddle player in his boat and by his stories of seafaring escapades. He came to encapsulate the spirit of adventure that all mariners possessed in the imagination of Yeats. Yeats included a depiction of 'The River Pilot' in a series of little watercolours that he made of the men working on the Sligo quays in 1900 (Niland Collection, The Model, Sligo). An illustration of 'The Pilot' featured in A Broadside (April 1910) which shows the sailor standing in his rowing boat and engaging in conversation with the bearded captain of a merchant ship. This formed the basis of his 1925 oil painting, The Captain Goes Aboard, 1925 (Private Collection). (The original watercolour for this is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, NGI 3826). A drawing of 'The Pilot' is also included in Yeats' book, Life in the West of Ireland (1912), depicting the figure standing on the headland at Rosses Point beside the Pilot House. In Pilot, Sligo River, the pilot stands, with hands in pockets, looking out towards the Atlantic. On the right, the sea, the Sligo coastline and a wide expanse of blustery sky evoke the breadth and magnitude of the natural world, to which the senses of the pilot are keenly attuned. Streaks of yellow in the sky and on the lapels and sleeves of the figure's dark jacket and cap suggest the fall of evening. Behind him to the left, sketched in thick white, blue and yellow paint, is the outline of buildings, part of the streetscape of the village of Rosses Point. The roadway beneath it is made of smooth layers of pink, blue and white. Its flat surface contrasts with the richly textured paint strokes used to form the houses and the pilot. In contrast to the relative solidity of his dark uniform, the face and head of the pilot are constructed out of unwieldy, thick pink and red paint. His trousers are a rich cacophony of bright reds, blues, yellows and ochres. This daring use of colour could refer simply to the reflection of sunlight, but it is also suggestive of the tenuousness of Yeats' memory of the sailor and his deployment of paint to reinvent the physical reality of his presence. Dr Róisín Kennedy August 2018

oil on canvas

signed lower left; titled in the artist's hand in Irish and English on canvas on reverse; titled on Dawson Gallery label also preserved on reverse