Jack B. Yeats - Master of Ceremonies

The Jack B. Yeats exhibition at the Hunt Museum fulfills international standards of excellence and aims to reach the widest possible audience. This exhibition includes some of the artist’s notable works from 1900 to the 1950s. These are primarily from private collections and so would not normally be available for public viewing. The pencil drawings, watercolours, and oils that feature highlight Yeats’ genius and originality and the development of his style.

Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) is regarded as Ireland’s greatest visual artist whose love of life is expressed in his work. He was the son of portrait painter John Butler Yeats and Susan Pollexfen and the brother of the poet William Butler Yeats. He spent his boyhood years from the age of eight to sixteen in Sligo with his maternal grandparents. In 1887 he returned to London to live with his parents at Earls Court and studied at a number of different art schools. The following year he established himself as an illustrator for journals and other publications. In 1894 he began recording his observations and ideas in a sketch book rather than in a diary. By the end of the century he was painting watercolours using recollections of his boyhood at Rosses Point in Sligo.

In 1894 Jack B. Yeats married fellow artist Mary Cottenham White from Devon, who was known to everyone as ‘Cottie’. The couple moved back to Ireland in 1910 settling first in Wicklow and then in Dublin. Yeats was elected a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin in 1916. He exhibited frequently in Dublin, London, Boston, New York and Paris. He also wrote novels and plays, the novels using the stream of consciousness method with little emphasis on plot. Three of Jack B. Yeats’ plays were produced at The Abbey Theatre.
Yeats’ subject matter was always Irish and he believed that ‘the true painter must be part of the land and of the life he paints’. He had no pupils and nobody was allowed to watch him work nor was he given to discussing his technique with others. Some of his favourite themes were horses, donkeys, the circus, clowns and travelling players . The style in which he depicted Irish life and Irish identity was a new departure in Irish painting. Although sympathetic to the republican cause, Yeats was not politically active. Yet his sympathies are implicit in some of his subject matter for instance, ‘Going to Wolf Tones Grave’ (1929).

Yeats did not work regularly in oils until 1906 and ‘Before the Start’(1915) is one of his earliest paintings in this medium. It has been suggested that it was Yeats’ more explorative use of oil which enabled him to realise his genius. He often abandoned the brush and squeezed paint directly on to the canvas or used a palette knife or on occasions used the pointed end of the brush to produce a stippling effect. Yeats gave serious consideration to the artistic power of colour. In later years Yeats moved from illustrative and descriptive painting and became more preoccupied with the subjective and symbolic. Themes such as the loneliness of the individual soul and the universality of the plight of mankind pervade his later work. When Jack B. Yeats died in 1957 Samuel Beckett wrote ‘Yeats is the great of our time ... he brings light as only the great dare to bring light to the issueless predicament of existence’.

Hosting this exhibition at the Hunt Museum will make a worthwhile contribution to ongoing Yeats scholarship and Irish art in the 20th century. It will also serve to promote Limerick, the mid-west region and Ireland as a venue for hosting major cultural events. A varied programme of events, courses and activities complement the exhibition. These are designed with a range of interests in mind and will catch the attention of both the specialist and general interest visitor. Highlights include lunchtime tours, Yeats Evenings, a symposium, art classes and family events.

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Jack B. Yeats - Master of Ceremonies