And Then He Won

These recently discovered sketches probably date from 1897, the year Yeats moved on from illustrating in black and white to working in watercolour. His first one-man exhibition was held at the Clifford Gallery in London's Haymarket in November of that year and consisted of forty-three watercolour sketches, which included similar horse-racing scenes with titles such as 'They'll take a lot of catching'. Yeats was still living in England, having only recently moved to Snails Castle in Strete in Devon, which suggests this lot might very well be at an English course rather than taken from his memories of racing in Ireland. The horse, perhaps blinkered for the first time, is reluctant to start, even more so to jump, but eventually gets going and wins the race by a short head.