Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A.

Victor Waddington Galleries, London, 1953;
Victor Waddington, London;
Ray Stark, 1969;
Herbert & Nora Kaye Ross Collection, California;
Butterfield & Butterfield, Los Angeles, 6 December 1988, lot 70;
Waddington Galleries, London;
Charles Gilmore, Belfast, where purchased by the present owner

Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol.II, 1992, no.1095, p.998

The board appears to be sound and the work in appears in good overall condition with lovely passages of impasto. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held under glass in a gilt plaster frame, unexamined out of frame.
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Several paintings within the last decade of Yeats' life shown a growing introspection as the reality of death became increasingly felt for him. Painted in 1951, in his eightieth year, the present work depicts an old man within a small room, staring downward caught up in his own thoughts. In the background, a figure tends to a fire which is coming alight, suggested by a deft flick of orange paint. Behind him, a door is ajar and a shaft of light can be seen, a small relief from the shadowy background. Combined with the title, there is a clear message of hope for the old man represented, a statement which might well be biographical. In the increasingly metaphorical references to old age and death towards the end of his career (for example The Nights are Closing In, 1951, private collection; Discovery, 1952, private collection) Yeats comes to terms with this reality not melancholicaly, but poetically and honestly. There is an overridingly positive message, which is unsuprising from an artist with an irrepresible love of life that is reflected in his extensive and fervent artistic career. The works of Yeats' last period are remarkable in their vigour and energy, and in the philisophical studies such as the present, one feels the fire still burning strongly.