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Lot Essay
Yeats creates immediate irony within this painting. He depicts a clown, stereotypically associated with fun, laughter and entertainment, and yet here, the figure is alone and his face is expressionless. There is no movement, no audience. This isolation is highlighted further by the curtain pulled back behind the clown. Lights shine brightly, the circus show is underway and yet around him there is silence.
These parallels between light and dark, movement and stillness, enjoyment and melancholy create an unease within the canvas.
Yeats' application of thick impasto paint to express emotion and colour to describe feeling only further this complicated and uncomfortable situation for the viewer.
Yeats himself was to experience great contrasts in his moods and mental state throughout his life. Between 1915 and 1917 he was to suffer from great fits of depression, resulting in a breakdown. Yeats berated himself over his unsuccessful attempts to sell his oil paintings.
Consequently, not only does this scene potentially personify Yeat's own melancholy, but also the irony between subject matter and ambiance reflects the real life irony that Yeats was to be subject to due to the failure to sell in his early career.
The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, is planning an exhibition entitled Masquerade and Spectacle to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Jack B. Yeats and has requested the loan of the present work for the exhibition which will take place in the Yeats Museum of the National Gallery from 18 July to 12 November 2007.
These parallels between light and dark, movement and stillness, enjoyment and melancholy create an unease within the canvas.
Yeats' application of thick impasto paint to express emotion and colour to describe feeling only further this complicated and uncomfortable situation for the viewer.
Yeats himself was to experience great contrasts in his moods and mental state throughout his life. Between 1915 and 1917 he was to suffer from great fits of depression, resulting in a breakdown. Yeats berated himself over his unsuccessful attempts to sell his oil paintings.
Consequently, not only does this scene potentially personify Yeat's own melancholy, but also the irony between subject matter and ambiance reflects the real life irony that Yeats was to be subject to due to the failure to sell in his early career.
The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, is planning an exhibition entitled Masquerade and Spectacle to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Jack B. Yeats and has requested the loan of the present work for the exhibition which will take place in the Yeats Museum of the National Gallery from 18 July to 12 November 2007.