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Jack B. Yeats , Irish, 1871-1957

Title

About to Write a Letter

Date1935

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

91 x 61 cm

Signedlower right: Jack B. Yeats

Credit LinePurchased, 1964 (Shaw Fund)

Object numberNGI.1766

DescriptionThe subject of About to Write a Letter is drawn from The Fancy, a small book of poems by Peter Corcoran originally published in 1820, but reedited by John Masefield and illustrated by Jack B. Yeats in 1906. The poems in the book focus on a group of dissolute young men, whose lives revolve around boxing and other tough sports, and can be read as the poet's farewell to the wild days of his youth. Peter Corcoran was the nom-de-plume of John Hamilton Reynolds, a close friend of Keats.

The richness of the colour Yeats uses here, from the scarlet of the table cover to the blues and greens of the wall behind is remarkable. Similarly striking are the tonal contrasts, such as that between the figure's pallid face and the dense blackness of his coat. The modelling is typically vigorous but summary, allowing details like the pictures on the wall in the background and the pen and paper on the table to emerge from the composition.

ProvenancePurchased from the artist, Richard McGonigal, SC, 1944; purchased, Private Collection, 1964 Exhibition HistoryRoyal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1935

Recent Paintings, Dunthorne Gallery, London, 19 March - 15 April 1936

International Exhibition of Paintings, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 15 October - 6 December 1936

National Loan Exhibition, National College of Art, Dublin, June - July 1945

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

Modern Irish Painting, An Comhairle Ealaíon, Helsinki; Goteberg; Norkopping; Stockholm; Copenhagen; Bielefeld; Bonn; Saarbrucken; London; Leeds; Glasgow; Dublin; Mayo; Donegal 1969-1971

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

Label TextMuch of Yeats’s artistic work of the 1930s echoed his own literary endeavours. This subject was drawn from a nineteenth-century collection of poems entitled The Fancy, written by John Hamilton Reynolds under the pseudonym Peter Corcoran. In the book, a young man finds himself torn between the love of his fiancée and the appeal of a wayward lifestyle. ‘The Fancy’ was a collective term applied in the nineteenth century to boxing, a sport in which Yeats had a particular interest.