Jack B. Yeats
, Irish, 1871-1957
Title
No FlowersDate1945
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
61 x 92 cm
Signedlower right: Jack B Yeats
Credit LinePresented, 1971
Object numberNGI.4031
ProvenancePurchased from the Artist, Mrs M. Spiro, later Mrs Waddington, 1947; presented, Private Collection, 1971Exhibition HistoryRoyal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1945Jack B. Yeats: Loan Exhibition, Temple Newsam Gallery, Leeds; Tate Gallery, London, 1948
Jack B. Yeats: Paintings, City Art Gallery, York, 1960
Jack B. Yeats: Oil Paintings, Willard Gallery, New York, 1962
Jack B. Yeats: Paintings, Waddington Gallery, London, 1963
North West Arts Festival and May Festival, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry; Belfast, 1964
Jack B. Yeats: Oil Paintings, Victor Waddington, London, 1967
Jack B. Yeats 1871-1957: A Centenary Exhibition, Dublin; New York, 1971-1972
Jack B. Yeats in the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1986
Label TextRemembrance is a motif that recurs in Yeats’s work. In this painting, an elderly man visits a cemetery. He has no flowers, so, bending forward, he places leaves upon one of the freshly covered graves as a token. The economic description of the headstones in the background is typical of Yeats’s work, as is the symbolic way in which a path trails off suggestively into the distance. The painting coincides with the passing of several members of Yeats’s family. However, through the employment of a colourful palette, and energetic brushwork, Yeats enlivens a sombre setting.