拍品專文
Hilary Pyle writes of this work 'The ship's captain features in Yeats's paintings and watercolours throughout his career, a romantic character who brought visions of far off countries into the quiet port of Sligo on his return from each voyage. Yeats's paintings of the forties are peopled with such personalities, imbued at this date with a metaphorical slant which retained humour and room for quiet satire that would gradually dissolve in the esotericism of his last great paintings.
The flash captain, something of a fancy man, saunters down the street in his small town, his head tipping the roof tops, his nostrils enjoying the scent from his cigar. Behind, a cabin boy with bent head carries a heavy bag for him. While the captain's head nestles the outline of the important buildings near him, the boy is framed by the humbler houses opposite: but directly above the young fellow's head is the open sky'.
(private correspondence, March 1996).
The flash captain, something of a fancy man, saunters down the street in his small town, his head tipping the roof tops, his nostrils enjoying the scent from his cigar. Behind, a cabin boy with bent head carries a heavy bag for him. While the captain's head nestles the outline of the important buildings near him, the boy is framed by the humbler houses opposite: but directly above the young fellow's head is the open sky'.
(private correspondence, March 1996).