Jack Butler Yeats, R.H.A.

Waddington Galleries, Montreal, where purchased by the family of the previous owner;
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 1998

London, Wildenstein, Recent Paintings, 4 - 28 March 1953, no.1086;
Montreal, Waddington Galleries, Paintings, 24 October - 11 November 1961, no.33, illustrated in the catalogue;
Dublin, Hugh Lane Gallery, Loan Exhibition, 1998-2015

Hilary Pyle, Jack Butler Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol. II., Andre Deutsch, London 1992, no.1086, p.989; also illustrated in Vol. III, p.551;
T. G. Rothensal, The Art of Jack B. Yeats, André Deutsch, London, 1993, p.237, illustrated

Original canvas. The work appears in excellent original condition with a rich impastoed surface, ready to hang. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. Held in a gilt plaster frame under glass; unexamined out of frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

‘A crowded interior where a party is going on, the windows defined with rich chrome and red, separating the calm of the exterior from the fluctuating mass of people within, which is painted in dark blues and mauve. Some figures in the foreground, interrupted by the noise from the moment, look back with different expressions at the babbling crowd, gazing at the bustling glamour and chatter.’ (Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol.III, 1992, p.989)

The Talkers was painted in the last decade of Yeats’s life at the climax of his career. During the 1940s, he had consolidated the powerful painting style he had been developing over the previous decades, and was creating his most expressive and exuberant paintings. That he has now attained a masterly facility with the brush is evident in the present work, painted energetically and assertively. Fluid brushwork boldly defines the silhouettes of the principal characters in the foreground, caught in action amongst the throngs of a high-spirited and glamorous aristocratic party. Interior settings had long been a source of inspiration in Yeats' career, from his early illustrations to the modernist subjects of the 1920s, such as A Republican Bazaar (1924, private collection) and Jazz Babies (1929, private collection), in addition to his circus and theatre scenes. For an artist enthralled with stories and characters, such interior subjects were ready sources of inspiration and allowed the artist to explore a range of emotions from melancholy to intense joy. They provide an important contrast to Yeats’s more well-known lyrical landscapes of the West of Ireland, and The Talkers encapsulates the buzz and excitement of city life.

As one comes to expect of Yeats, colour is not restrained and he uses it with a sense of urgency to enrich his work with emotion. Perhaps Kenneth Clark described his use of colour most tellingly in his introduction to an exhibition of Jack Butler Yeats' and William Nicholson's work at the National Gallery, London in 1942: '...light is transformed into colour, for colour is Yeats' element in which he dives and splashes with the shameless abandon of a porpoise. And colour knows no laws: it is the language of the free, the passionate, the impulsive, the intoxicated.'