JACK B. YEATS, R.H.A. | ON THE HAZARD

Acquired directly from the artist by Serge Philipson, Dublin, May 1948;

Christie's, London, 20 May 1999, lot 132;

Sotheby's, London, 6 May 2010, lot 39;

Sotheby's, London, 19 November 2013, lot 81, where purchased by the present owner

Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1911, no.134;

Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Jack B. Yeats, A Centenary Exhibition, September - December 1971, no.28

Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London, 1992, no.27, illustrated p.26

The dramatic chiaroscuro of the present, early oil relates to Yeats's interest in Honoré Daumier at the time. In the dark moody background, a side-car has pulled up at a cab-stand and its driver is peering over into the foreground providing an apt backdrop for the group of three cabbies completely engrossed in their game of cards, their faces lit-up by the flickering candle light at the centre of the composition.