Jack B. Yeats, Irish, 1871-1957
Title: Men of Destiny
Date: 1946
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
51 x 69 cm
Signed: lower right: Jack B. Yeats
Credit Line: Presented, Jack B. Yeats National Loan Exhibition Committee, 1946
Object Number: NGI.1134
DescriptionLike many of Yeats’s later paintings, Men of Destiny is wilfully esoteric and reflective, but informed by both the artist’s advanced age and his response to significant historical events. Yeats executed this work just a year after the end of the Second World War, and exactly three decades after the Easter Rising.
The title itself appears to refer to Inis Fáil (or Land of Destiny), an ancient name assigned to Ireland by the Tuatha dé Danann, and also perhaps Fianna Fáil (Warriors of Destiny), the republican party of Eamonn de Valera. The painting, meanwhile, calls to mind several other works in which Yeats used the motif of isolated figures by the sea to great emotional effect. Here he draws again on his experiences as a youth in Sligo, observing fishermen mooring their boats at rosses point. Yeats’s approach is neither literal nor geographically specific, however, and the painting boasts as a consequence a universal quality typical of the artist’s later work. The spectral figures, modelled economically in rich, expressive colours – royal blue, vermilion, yellow – can be seen to stand for all ordinary men who left their daily, often mundane employment, to fight for freedom.
March 2016
The title itself appears to refer to Inis Fáil (or Land of Destiny), an ancient name assigned to Ireland by the Tuatha dé Danann, and also perhaps Fianna Fáil (Warriors of Destiny), the republican party of Eamonn de Valera. The painting, meanwhile, calls to mind several other works in which Yeats used the motif of isolated figures by the sea to great emotional effect. Here he draws again on his experiences as a youth in Sligo, observing fishermen mooring their boats at rosses point. Yeats’s approach is neither literal nor geographically specific, however, and the painting boasts as a consequence a universal quality typical of the artist’s later work. The spectral figures, modelled economically in rich, expressive colours – royal blue, vermilion, yellow – can be seen to stand for all ordinary men who left their daily, often mundane employment, to fight for freedom.
March 2016
ProvenancePurchased from the Artist, Committee of the Jack B. Yeats Loan Exhibition, 1946; presented, Committee of the Jack B. Yeats Loan Exhibition, 1946
Exhibition HistorySociety of Scottish Artists 52nd Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Galleries, Edinburgh, Spring 1946
Thomas Davis and the Young Ireland Movement Centenary Exhibition of Pictures of Historical Interest, National College of Art, Dublin, August 1946
Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1946
Loan Exhibition, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 20 June - 4 August 1948
Loan Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London, 14 August - 15 September 1948
A First Retrospective American Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, March 1951; Phillips Gallery, Washington; De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Toronto Art Gallery, Toronto; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; New York National Academy, New York 1951-1952
An Tóstal: Irish Paintings 1903-1953, Municipal Gallery, Dublin, April - July 1953
Paintings, Museum and Art Gallery, Belfast, February - March 1956
XXXI Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte: La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, July - October 1962
Cuimhneacháin 1916, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, April 1966
Jack B. Yeats: A Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, September - December 1971; Cultural Centre, New York, April - June 1972
Jack B. Yeats in the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 26 March - 20 April 1986
Jack B. Yeats: The Outsider, The Model, 5 February - 12 June 2011
Lines of Vision. Irish Writers at the National Gallery of Ireland, 8 October 2014 —12 April 2015
Turbulence, The Model, Sligo, 02 December 2017 to 26 April 2018
Thomas Davis and the Young Ireland Movement Centenary Exhibition of Pictures of Historical Interest, National College of Art, Dublin, August 1946
Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1946
Loan Exhibition, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 20 June - 4 August 1948
Loan Exhibition, Tate Gallery, London, 14 August - 15 September 1948
A First Retrospective American Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, March 1951; Phillips Gallery, Washington; De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Toronto Art Gallery, Toronto; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; New York National Academy, New York 1951-1952
An Tóstal: Irish Paintings 1903-1953, Municipal Gallery, Dublin, April - July 1953
Paintings, Museum and Art Gallery, Belfast, February - March 1956
XXXI Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte: La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, July - October 1962
Cuimhneacháin 1916, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, April 1966
Jack B. Yeats: A Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, September - December 1971; Cultural Centre, New York, April - June 1972
Jack B. Yeats in the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 26 March - 20 April 1986
Jack B. Yeats: The Outsider, The Model, 5 February - 12 June 2011
Lines of Vision. Irish Writers at the National Gallery of Ireland, 8 October 2014 —12 April 2015
Turbulence, The Model, Sligo, 02 December 2017 to 26 April 2018
Label TextMen of Destiny was painted at a time of particular, widespread reflection: thirty years after the 1916 Rising, and just a year after the end of the Second World War. Drawing on his visual memory of Sligo fishermen disembarking at Rosses Point and fastening the boats, Yeats explores the notion of figures leaving their daily employment to fight for freedom. The title of the painting refers at once to Ireland (known as ‘Inis Fáil’ or ‘Land of Destiny’), and de Valera’s republican party Fianna Fáil (‘Warriors of Destiny’).