14 by 18in. (35.6 by 45.7cm)

Title: HOPE, 1946
Note: This late painting of Yeats depicts an intriguing night-time scene. A small boat in the middle of the ocean is being guided by a figure, who stands in the prow, holding an oar aloft. His face is formed out of thick strokes of yellow-white paint making it appear disfigured in the reflected light. Behind him, a young woman is seated in the boat. Her blue and gold costume radiates light. Her demeanour is contemplative and compliant with her head downcast. She contrasts with the outward active posture of her companion. The boat appears to be drawing alongside a larger ship, the masthead of which dominates the right-hand side of the composition. The enigmatic title, Hope, gives little clue as to what the subject of the painting is. Yeats occasionally used emotions as the titles of his paintings, most famously in his late masterpiece, Grief, (1951, National Gallery of Ireland). The passive female figure is intended to be allegorical, perhaps evoking the idea of courage and faith in humanity. In the history of art, a boat may represent something that enables the safe crossing of the sea or of life's journey. In 1954 Yeats painted a very different work of a young boy sailing a toy boat, entitled The Ship of Hope, (1954, Private Collection) and the title Hope may therefore refer to the boat and the trust in its secure crossing. The dark skies and stormy waves indicate the uncertainty of the circumstances and add to the drama of the scene. Yeats uses a nautical voyage to evoke a similar sense of anticipation in A Passage is Required, (1953, Private Collection). The complex application of paint obscures any superficial reading of the work as a mere illustration. Colour is thinly applied in the skies and in the structure of the boat but is deep and thick in the delineation of the two figures and in the white waves through which the boat moves. White, yellow and strong blue and red touches denote reflected light, the source of which seems to be the waves themselves. The details are deliberately unclear, forcing the viewer to engage physically with the work, in order to make sense of its elements. As in his other paintings, Yeats ensures that the tangible fact of the painting prevails.Dr Róisín Kennedy,August 2019

oil on canvas

signed lower right; titled on stretcher; bearing Waddington and Timothy Taylor labels on reverse