Jack B. Yeats
, Irish, 1871-1957
Title
A Lake RegattaDate1923
MediumOil on board
Dimensions
23 x 36 cm
SignedJack B. Yeats
Credit LineBequeathed, Mr R. Best, 1959
Object numberNGI.1406
ProvenancePurchased, Richard Irvine Best, 1923; bequeathed, Mr R. I. Best, 1959Exhibition HistoryJack B. Yeats: Drawings and Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland, Mills Hall, Dublin, 1923Jack B. Yeats in the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1986
Label TextThis picture was among several inspired by a visit Yeats made in 1923 to Lady Gregory at Coole Park in Co. Galway. In tone and activity, it contrasts with Yeats’s animated, rain-swept illustration Regatta, included in his book Life in the West of Ireland published in 1912. In this painting, Yeats records boats assembling for the start of a race on Lough Cultra, near Gort. The description of the event is at once economical and bold, featuring carefully observed local detail, and a horizontal composition interrupted by a flag pole.