Lot Essay
Hilary Pyle writes of this work 'The Post Car is the second in a series of handcoloured prints issued by the Cuala Press, Dublin, from 1908, for which this is the original drawing. Yeats had previously painted the subject, a driver with his pony and side-car, in watercolour about 1901.
Yeats's younger sister, Elizabeth Yeats, first established the Dun Emer Press in conjunction with Evelyn Glesson of Dun Emer Industries, from whom she parted in the summer of 1908. About 1906 Jack B. Yeats began to design prints for Dun Emer, some of which were continued under the Cuala imprint, and it is quite likely that he designed The Post Car for Dun Emer about 1907, but that it was not used until his sister had set up her new press.
The scenes in the Dun Emer and Cuala prints all have a West of Ireland theme, as had Jack Yeats's painting of the time. They are executed in a strong pen and ink style, ultimately derived from traditional balladsheets, that was to influence Irish illustration for two decades. Yeats continued to colour the Cuala Prints by hand for his sister until 1926. They were extremely popular, and hung in many houses in Dublin'. (private correspondence, March 1996).
Yeats's younger sister, Elizabeth Yeats, first established the Dun Emer Press in conjunction with Evelyn Glesson of Dun Emer Industries, from whom she parted in the summer of 1908. About 1906 Jack B. Yeats began to design prints for Dun Emer, some of which were continued under the Cuala imprint, and it is quite likely that he designed The Post Car for Dun Emer about 1907, but that it was not used until his sister had set up her new press.
The scenes in the Dun Emer and Cuala prints all have a West of Ireland theme, as had Jack Yeats's painting of the time. They are executed in a strong pen and ink style, ultimately derived from traditional balladsheets, that was to influence Irish illustration for two decades. Yeats continued to colour the Cuala Prints by hand for his sister until 1926. They were extremely popular, and hung in many houses in Dublin'. (private correspondence, March 1996).