18
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
Estimate:
€8,000 - €12,000
Sold
€7,000
Live Auction
Irish & International Art
Size
7 by 10.25in. (17.8 by 26cm)
Description
Title: A LONG WAY TO GO, RACES IN DEVONSHIRE ['THEY'LL TAKE A LOT OF CATCHING!'] 1897
Note: The Clifford Gallery exhibition in 1897 was the artist's first ever one-man exhibition of his watercolours or drawings. Hilary Pyle in her catalogue raisonné of the watercolours lists the present work with the title 'They'll Take a Lot of Catching!' . She describes this period thus: "While few watercolours survive from the earliest black and white period, it seems that Yeats was beginning to think seriously about concentrating on watercolour from 1894. In 1895 his 'Strand Races, West of Ireland' was accepted by the Royal Hibernian Academy; and the following year he painted a few watercolour landscapes in Devon, while looking for a house where he could settle away from London. At the time, like many other Irish artists, he must have seen more opportunities for a career in art in England than in Ireland, and his Devon ancestry would have drawn him naturally to that area. What interested him in Devon was people rather than landscape. He was fascinated by the farmers and the horse traders, by the local rivalries and the fair entertainments, by the contenders in races and boxing matches, and no less by the audience who were glued to the performances. He worked assiduously in an original style which consisted occasionally of watercolour alone, but mainly of pencil or charcoal and crayon sketching, finished with a harmonious, sometimes vivid, wash. By November 1897 he had gathered together forty-three watercolour sketches for his first one-man exhibition at the Clifford Gallery in London's Haymarket. Style was an obvious consideration by the artist in this first collection of watercolours, even to the affected nature of the signature. Used occasionally in his pen and ink period and featuring a box shape on top of the 'J', [as can be seen in the present work] this form of signature disappeared before the end of the century, to be replaced by a bolder but plainer form of autograph, generally in capital letters."(1) FOOTNOTE Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, Irish Academic Press, 1993, pp.12-13
Note: The Clifford Gallery exhibition in 1897 was the artist's first ever one-man exhibition of his watercolours or drawings. Hilary Pyle in her catalogue raisonné of the watercolours lists the present work with the title 'They'll Take a Lot of Catching!' . She describes this period thus: "While few watercolours survive from the earliest black and white period, it seems that Yeats was beginning to think seriously about concentrating on watercolour from 1894. In 1895 his 'Strand Races, West of Ireland' was accepted by the Royal Hibernian Academy; and the following year he painted a few watercolour landscapes in Devon, while looking for a house where he could settle away from London. At the time, like many other Irish artists, he must have seen more opportunities for a career in art in England than in Ireland, and his Devon ancestry would have drawn him naturally to that area. What interested him in Devon was people rather than landscape. He was fascinated by the farmers and the horse traders, by the local rivalries and the fair entertainments, by the contenders in races and boxing matches, and no less by the audience who were glued to the performances. He worked assiduously in an original style which consisted occasionally of watercolour alone, but mainly of pencil or charcoal and crayon sketching, finished with a harmonious, sometimes vivid, wash. By November 1897 he had gathered together forty-three watercolour sketches for his first one-man exhibition at the Clifford Gallery in London's Haymarket. Style was an obvious consideration by the artist in this first collection of watercolours, even to the affected nature of the signature. Used occasionally in his pen and ink period and featuring a box shape on top of the 'J', [as can be seen in the present work] this form of signature disappeared before the end of the century, to be replaced by a bolder but plainer form of autograph, generally in capital letters."(1) FOOTNOTE Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, Irish Academic Press, 1993, pp.12-13
Medium
watercolour over pencil
Signature
signed and dated lower left; titled in pencil in the artist's hand on reverse; with Waddington Galleries [Montreal] exhibition label on reverse
Provenance
with Victor Waddington, London;
with Waddington Galleries, Montreal;
Private collection, Canada
Literature
Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels, Irish Academic Press, 1993, no. 51, listed (as 'They'll Take a Lot of Catching!') and illustrated page 64
Exhibited
'Watercolour Sketches' (One-Man Exhibition), Clifford Gallery, London, November, 1897, exhibition no. 5
