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Lot Essay
“The true painter must be part of the land and of the life he paints.” – Jack B. Yeats
Painted in a lively interplay of vibrant colour, Jack B. Yeats’s 1936 composition A Storm/Gaillshíon depicts a young man seated on a bench at the side of a sandy pathway overlooking the sea. Situated on a gentle incline and cutting through verdant hedgerows of bright, flickering unmixed pigment, the thoroughfare leads the eye along the rolling profile of a series of cliffs, towards layers of gently variegated clouds that gather offshore. According to the artist, this scene refers to no particular, identifiable place, but rather is intended to be indicative of a typical Irish coastal scene, a familiar landscape visible throughout the island. The young man, dressed in a smart hat and coat, appears completely absorbed in the book he is reading, seemingly unaware of the shifting weather around him. Executed in gestural, impastoed strokes of pigment, the composition reflects Yeats’s evolving style through the late 1930s, as he embraced a brighter colour palette and increasingly expressive, fluid brushwork.
The secondary title of the work, the Irish word Gaillshíon, conjures a rich impression of the atmospheric conditions of the day, suggesting the coastline is being buffeted by rough, blustery weather. Although it is unlikely that Yeats ever became a fluent speaker, an array of copybooks in the artist’s archives feature hand-written study notes and phonetic spellings of common phrases as Gaeilge, illustrating his abiding commitment to learning the native Irish language. He was particularly interested in everyday phrases that could be used in conversation, which he believed would allow him to reach a better understanding of his country and its people. In choosing the unusual word Gaillshíon for the present work, Yeats demonstrates his ongoing fascination with the rich array of meteorological terms, phrases and vocabulary used to elegantly describe the nuances and particularities of varying weather conditions along the coastlines of Ireland.
Painted in a lively interplay of vibrant colour, Jack B. Yeats’s 1936 composition A Storm/Gaillshíon depicts a young man seated on a bench at the side of a sandy pathway overlooking the sea. Situated on a gentle incline and cutting through verdant hedgerows of bright, flickering unmixed pigment, the thoroughfare leads the eye along the rolling profile of a series of cliffs, towards layers of gently variegated clouds that gather offshore. According to the artist, this scene refers to no particular, identifiable place, but rather is intended to be indicative of a typical Irish coastal scene, a familiar landscape visible throughout the island. The young man, dressed in a smart hat and coat, appears completely absorbed in the book he is reading, seemingly unaware of the shifting weather around him. Executed in gestural, impastoed strokes of pigment, the composition reflects Yeats’s evolving style through the late 1930s, as he embraced a brighter colour palette and increasingly expressive, fluid brushwork.
The secondary title of the work, the Irish word Gaillshíon, conjures a rich impression of the atmospheric conditions of the day, suggesting the coastline is being buffeted by rough, blustery weather. Although it is unlikely that Yeats ever became a fluent speaker, an array of copybooks in the artist’s archives feature hand-written study notes and phonetic spellings of common phrases as Gaeilge, illustrating his abiding commitment to learning the native Irish language. He was particularly interested in everyday phrases that could be used in conversation, which he believed would allow him to reach a better understanding of his country and its people. In choosing the unusual word Gaillshíon for the present work, Yeats demonstrates his ongoing fascination with the rich array of meteorological terms, phrases and vocabulary used to elegantly describe the nuances and particularities of varying weather conditions along the coastlines of Ireland.