Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
The Strand Races, The Start, (1906)
Ink on Paper, 14.7 x 46.4cm (5¾ x 18¼")
Signed

Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Christie's, London, 9 November 1984, lot 72;...

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
The Strand Races, The Start, (1906)
Ink on Paper, 14.7 x 46.4cm (5¾ x 18¼")
Signed

Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin; Christie's, London, 9 November 1984, lot 72; Theo Waddington's Irish Art Project, label verso; Sale, Sotheby's, London 2015

Exhibited: London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Summer Exhibition of Irish Art, 21 May - 29 June 1913, no.71

Literature: Hilary Pile, The Different Worlds of Jack B. Yeats: His Cartoons and Illustrations, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1994, no.2015, p.283

The Start and The Finish (lot 27) are original illustrations which were used by Jack B. Yeats’ sisters, Lily and Lolly, at the Dun Emer and Cuala Press as designs from which to produce line-block prints. These prints were hand-coloured by Yeats himself or by one of the craftswomen, Molly Gill or Eileen Colm. The long horizontal format allows as much detail as possible to be included. The simplicity of the drawings and their unaffected style provided a sympathetic and influential portrayal of life in rural Ireland during the Cultural Revival. Yeats’s designs for the Dun Emer and Cuala Industries were extremely popular and were issued as individual prints, Christmas cards and calendars.

 

Dr Roisin Kennedy, November 2023

View more View less