JACK B. YEATS, R.H.A. | HOUSES BY THE SEA

Major Bryan Cooper (purchased at the 1924 exhibition);

Sotheby's, London, 14 December 1966, lot 272;

Waddington Galleries, London;

Alistair McAlpine;

Mrs K.M. Kinmouth, London;

Victor Waddington, London, 1972;

Private collection, Montreal, 1972;

Theo Waddington Fine Art, London;

Waddington Galleries, London, where purchased by the present owner in 1997

Hilary Pyle, Jack B Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch, 1992, Vol. I, no.237, p.212 and Vol.III, p.102

The present work belongs to a series of paintings Yeats made about the coast of Co. Sligo and Co. Mayo in 1924. The sea and the lives of those dependent on it was a major theme throughout Yeats' career. While many of the works from this year depict local sailors, such as The Pier (1924, private collection) or Landing Cargo, Mayo Coast (1924, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.), the present work unusually focuses solely on the houses, beyond which the sea can be glimpsed and the cool, clear light of the sky. 

The more realist handling of the painting is typical of Yeats' work at this time, but the painterly surface, flashes of red and signs of looser handling hints at the bold expressionist technique that defined his paintings from the 1930s onwards.