Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Looking Down on the Old Racecourse of Bowmore, Sligo(1944) Oil on panel, 22.8 x 35.6cm (9 x 14'') Signed, inscribed with title in the artist's hand verso ...

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Looking Down on the Old Racecourse of Bowmore, Sligo(1944) Oil on panel, 22.8 x 35.6cm (9 x 14'') Signed, inscribed with title in the artist's hand verso Provenance: Victor Waddington Galleries, where purcahsed by R.N. Flynn 1945. Sold later at Sotheby's London, 22nd June 1994, Lot 93 Literature: Hilary Pyle, ''Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings'', London 1992, Vol II p598, Cat. No. 654 Bowmore is one of the race tracks situated next to the strand at Rosses Point, Co.Sligo which Yeats frequented as a very young man in the 1880s and 1890s. It was at that time part of the Middleton estate and thus belonged to the artist's maternal relations. His favourite uncle, George Pollexfen was one of the stewards of the race meetings there at the time. In 1898 the racecourse moved to the neighbouring Hazelwood location and in 1941 races at Rosses Point ended altogether. In this work, Yeats as in other late paintings, revisits the sights of his youth. The flat open terrain of the course seems to continue on into the expanse of sea and sky beyond. The vertical posts of the old track are still intact and clearly visible, remnants of a now vanished past. In a sense they take the place of figures appearing as anthropomorphic elements, witnesses to the great triumphs and disappointments of a bygone era. For Yeats, as in this evocative painting, the landscape is always a setting for human action. Here the vivacious colours and the rich textures of the paint surface convey the longevity of nature and its power to stir up memories of the past. Dr. Roisin Kennedy

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