Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Sleep by Falling Water (1948) Oil on canvas, 46 x 61cm (18 x 24'') Signed Provenance: Capuchin Annual Office Dublin; Mrs Jobling-Purser Dublin; Christies...

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Sleep by Falling Water (1948) Oil on canvas, 46 x 61cm (18 x 24'') Signed Provenance: Capuchin Annual Office Dublin; Mrs Jobling-Purser Dublin; Christies (Dublin) 24th October 1988 where purchased by current owners (front of cover illustration of catalogue) Exhibited: ''Jack B. Yeats'' Exhibition Victor Wellington Galleries, Oct 1949, Cat. No. 6; ''Jack B. Yeats - First Retrospective American Exhibition'' opened Institute of Contemporary Art Boston,1951/2 and travelled Nationwide; ''Jack B. Yeats'' Exhibition Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris, February 1954, Cat. No. 19; ''Jack B. Yeats'' Loan Exhibition New Gallery, Belfast, June 1965, Cat. No. 7. Literature: ''Jack B. Yeats - A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings'' by Hilary Pyle Vol. II, Catalogue No.955, illustrated p.862 An old man lies on the ground his hands across his chest. On his right a torrent of water cascades down a rocky ravine. On his left a chasm and a dramatic mountainous landscape extends to the horizon. Hilary Pyle has likened the setting to that of On Through the Silent Lands (1951, Ulster Museum). According to her catalogue raisonné it is based on the terrain of the Sligo-Leitrim border. The theme is a familiar one in Yeats's later work. The wandering old man making his way through an uncultivated landscape, resting or walking or chatting to others that he meets recurs in many late paintings. The features of this figure have been likened to those of Yeats, himself and it is possible that the painting, as in most works of art, is at some level autobiographical. The sleeping figure surrounded by a vibrant landscape is often a trope in painting to suggest the imagination of the sleeper who, lost in his dreams, experiences life in an intense way. Similarly the subject also suggests the poignancy of nature in the eyes of someone who has grown old and aware of their mortality. Yeats painted this when he was 77 years of age. The construction of the surface of the painting counteracts the romanticism of the subject matter. The creation of the waterfall through a cacophony of colours and a myriad of brushstrokes suggest the energy and movement of the water. But it also draws attention to the construction of the painting and invites the viewer to accept the illusions that it creates. In this setting the figure of the man appears fragile, fashioned as it is out of a few strokes of black and white paint amidst the colourful and expansive nature than surrounds and almost engulfs it. Rather like the background to Leonardo's Mona Lisa, Yeats's fantastic setting dwarfs the physicality of the figure while suggesting the richness and depth of the human imagination. Dr. Roisin Kennedy October 2014

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