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Lot Essay
Pyle comments, 'A tramp seen by the artist reclining on the steps of the court house at Naas, in County Kildare, with children playing nearby' (loc. cit).
On the Court House Steps was painted in 1946 when Yeats was already receiving considerable recognition: in 1945 a National Loan exhibition of his work was shown in Dublin and Thomas McGreevy's monograph was published by Victor Waddington. A year earlier Yeats had shown for the first time at Victor Waddington's gallery in Dublin and he had already shown work jointly with William Nicholson at the National Gallery, London. Yeats had honed his expressionist style, painting masterpieces such as The Whistle of a Jacket (sold in these rooms, 17 May 2001, lot 50).
In the present work, a possibly elderly tramp sits on some steps outside a court houses step, and his slumped, dejected, attitude is in contrast to the brightly dressed children playing gaily on the right hand side of the painting. The inclusion of a cockerel on the court house steps could be an allusion to Biblical story of Peter's denial of Christ.
On the Court House Steps was painted in 1946 when Yeats was already receiving considerable recognition: in 1945 a National Loan exhibition of his work was shown in Dublin and Thomas McGreevy's monograph was published by Victor Waddington. A year earlier Yeats had shown for the first time at Victor Waddington's gallery in Dublin and he had already shown work jointly with William Nicholson at the National Gallery, London. Yeats had honed his expressionist style, painting masterpieces such as The Whistle of a Jacket (sold in these rooms, 17 May 2001, lot 50).
In the present work, a possibly elderly tramp sits on some steps outside a court houses step, and his slumped, dejected, attitude is in contrast to the brightly dressed children playing gaily on the right hand side of the painting. The inclusion of a cockerel on the court house steps could be an allusion to Biblical story of Peter's denial of Christ.