14 by 21in. (35.6 by 53.3cm)

Title: RIVER MOUTH, 1946
Note: In this nocturnal view of the mouth of a wide river at the point where it flows into the open sea, the diagonal expanse of the fast flowing water dominates the composition, creating a tremendous sense of movement. In contrast to this dynamic force, a man is depicted seated on the left bank of the river. His hands folded, he calmly surveys the scene. The enclosed form of his body, with hands and knees drawn together, suggest the coldness of the night but, more crucially, act as a counterpoint to the freedom of the flowing water in front of him. To balance the composition Yeats depicts glimpses of the farther bank. Part of this, a tiny island with green and yellow foliage, is just visible in the distance. Beyond it a larger form, the same dark blue colour as that of the water, can just be made out. It appears to be a ship in the bay beyond the river. Its large scale and its position on the open water contrast with the static and contemplative quality of the figure in the foreground.The man’s black peaked hat and prominent moustache give him the appearance of earlier nautical figures by Yeats, such as his sailors and pilots. The latter, whom Yeats had known as a boy in Sligo, took on almost heroic proportion in his work. The pilot relied on his knowledge of the local terrain and of the dangers of the tides and currents to fulfil his important task of guiding ships in and out of the harbour. His skills were greatly valued particularly in a community which relied so heavily on the sea. Yeats, whose family were merchants and ship-owners, was well aware of the significance of the pilot and the experienced sailor to Irish life. But later such figures came to be associated with the free spirited travellers who peopled so many of Yeats’s paintings. In this context the sailor was depicted as an unconventional, romantic figure who understood the power of the natural world and was able to survive within it.Similar figures to the one depicted here recur in Early Afloat, (private collection, 1947), where the sailor is shown walking with his oars towards a boat, and in the much earlier, On a Western Quay, Sligo, (private collection, 1923). In River Mouth, the dramatic lighting, coming from the lower left hand corner of the composition, spotlights the man and his strange, nomadic surroundings. He sits outside a shack and the two handles of his oars are clearly visible behind him.The theme of the river recurs in many of Yeats’s oil paintings, a large group of them dating, like this example, to the mid 1940s. The fast flowing river was used by Yeats in both his painting and his writing as a metaphor for the power of the natural world, and by extension, for life itself. When watched by the human figure, the river becomes a symbol of universality and timelessness as opposed to the ego of the individual. Such a contemplation of the natural world represented a vital communion between the individual and the more enduring forces of nature. Yeats’s father, John Butler Yeats, remembered how Jack always regretted not spending more time looking over the bridge into the river in Sligo, as a young boy.1 He clearly felt that such an activity was not wasting time but was a way of connecting to the earth itself. As an old man, as Yeats was when he painted this work, the metaphor was even more poignant.Dr Róisín Kennedy1 Quoted in Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats. A Biography, 1970, p. 19, and Nora A. McGuinness, The Literary Universe of Jack B. Yeats, 1992, p. 115.
Frame dimensions: 20 by 27.5in. (50.8 by 69.9cm)

Excellent condition.

oil on canvas

signed lower left; with exhibition labels on reverse