Jack B. Yeats, R.H.A. 1871-1957

Victor Waddington, Dublin, whence purchased by A. Abrahams, Surrey, 1949
Private Collection
Mr Nesbitt Waddington

Dublin, Victor Waddington Galleries, Jack B. Yeats, Oil Paintings, 1949, no.18;
York, City Art Gallery, Jack B. Yeats, Paintings (presented for the York Festival), 1960, no.31;
Dublin, R.H.A. Gallagher Gallery, Jack B. Yeats, 1995, no.44.

Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, André Deutsch, London, 1992, no.980, p.886, illustrated.

Two suited men are absorbed in books in this freely painted interior scene of 1949. One sits at a large, imposing desk, leafing through a thick volume, papers scattered liberally across the entire work surface. The other stands, also with a book in hand, but facing more in the direction of the bright light that floods the otherwise sombre panelled and carpeted room through the casement windows. Yeats apparently only ever painted this one portrait of ‘businessmen’, and was more commonly drawn to trades involving either the land directly, or at least physical labour. He did however include professionals in other paintings. In 1928 he turns a commercial traveller into a hero as A Knight of the Road and he went on in 1929 to study A Man Doing Accounts. A Politician and Tally Clerks crop up later, although quite a few of the listed ‘merchants’ in fact draw inspiration from female stall-holders working out of doors (for example, Paper Bags for Hats and The Little Merchant, both 1925) rather than the more executive level of work seen here.

Of all the ‘skilled trade’ subjects Business perhaps has most in common with Yeats’ two legal subjects – all three works painted just a few years apart – Justice, a court house interior of 1946, and 1948’s Man in a Court of Justice Reading. However, the former simply shows a near empty interior: rather than a law lord in full spate, the court has been dismissed and a lone cleaning lady remains. The 1948 image shows a young man engrossed in his book within the sober, shadowy interior. In this respect it is the closest comparable work to Business, perhaps along with two other mid-period works, About to Write a Letter (1935, coll. National Gallery of Ireland) and Sleep (1944, private collection). Here we see educated individuals within elegant, solid interiors, granted the luxury and privilege of privacy, through which to indulge intellectual reflection. About to Write a Letter is based on the poet John Hamilton Reynolds, who had turned his back on a love of boxing for a career in law and married life – the character in the painting reluctantly does the same. Sleep shows an old man in a wine-coloured waistcoat, at peace in a high-backed chair by a large window similar to that in the present work. The portrait was executed in homage to the artist’s dealer, Victor Waddington. A businessman par excellence, despite having being caught napping in this one work, it was Waddington who astutely pushed Yeats’ reputation from the 1940s onwards to secure him international recognition and higher prices. (Indeed, it was through Victor that Business was first sold to a collector in England.) These interiors all make use of a rich yet restrained palette, where red is toned to mulberry, indigo to teal (as prevalent here), yellow to gold, and where green is carefully and sparingly used a a foil to these three primaries. Such measured opulence lends the interiors a dignity, calm and presence that is in keeping with the presumed position and ambition of their inhabitants.