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Jack B. Yeats , Irish, 1871-1957

Title

Old Walls

Date1945

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

46 x 61 cm

Signedlower right: Jack B Yeats

Credit LineHeritage Gift, Mr and Mrs John Morrissey, 2003

Object numberNGI.4716

Description

ProvenancePurchased by Samuel Courtauld, 1946; Heritage Gift, Mr and Mrs John Morrissey, 2003Exhibition HistoryJack B. Yeats Oil Paintings, Wildenstein, London, 1946

Society of Scottish Artists 52nd Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1946

Jack B. Yeats Loan Exhibition, Temple Newsam House, Leeds; Tate Gallery, London, 1948

Samuel Beckett: a Passion for Paintings, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 15 June 2006 - 17 September 2006

Jack B. Yeats: Selected Works from the Niland Collection, Sligo, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 8 March 2008 - 30 November 2008

Taking Stock: Acquisitions 2000-2010, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 13 March 2010 - 25 July 2010



Label TextIn old age, Yeats painted several works of this kind, in which a solitary, elderly figure appears to wander in familiar territory. It seems reasonable to imagine that such figures, aged and reflective, represent the artist himself, revisiting places or past experiences and pondering his current circumstances. Both the title and image might be taken as metaphors for an individual’s confrontation of the inevitable advance of time. Yeats had for many years enjoyed exploring the world of memory for its emotional and material content.