Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) A Small Fair (1903) (AKA A Little Fair) Watercolour and gouache, 36 x 26cm (10¼ x 14'') Signed Provenance: Solomon Gallery Exhibition label verso Exhibited:...

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) A Small Fair (1903) (AKA A Little Fair) Watercolour and gouache, 36 x 26cm (10¼ x 14'') Signed Provenance: Solomon Gallery Exhibition label verso Exhibited: 1903 London ''Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland'', The Walker Art Gallery, Catalogue No. 17; 1903 Dublin ''Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland'', The Central Hall, Catalogue No. 2; 1969 Montreal ''Jack B. Yeats, Retrospective Exhibition'', Waddington Fine Arts, Catalogue No. 35 Literature: ''Jack B. Yeats, His Watercolours, Drawings, Pastels'', by Hilary Pyle, Catalogue No. 440 This watercolour was first exhibited in Dublin and London in 1903 as part of one of Jack Yeats's Sketches of life in the West of Ireland one-man shows. These revelatory exhibitions established his reputation as one of the most innovative of Irish artists. The strongly coloured watercolours showing scenes based on Yeats's travels through Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal were warmly received by critics and admirers, especially those associated with the Cultural Revival. They provided refreshing visualisations of Irish rural life invested with humour and humanity. The fairground was a popular subject showing as this painting does different social groups coming together. Situated on a plain field in the middle of the countryside with a thatched cottage visible in the background, the usual scene has been transformed by the setting up of the colourful stalls of the fair. With an eye to advertising, Yeats humorously compares the competing signs of J. Nolan and P. Nolan's stalls, each relying on a repertoire of nationalist motifs to attract customers. In the midst of the composition a policeman dressed in full uniform surveys the scene. His authority is subtly undermined by the unconventionality of his companions comprising a donkey, a young boy who gazes out of the painting and an old man setting up his rather complex gambling stall. Yeats's knowledge of post-impressionist art and design is evident in his contrasting of deep green and purple hues and in the cut-off composition which adds to the strange mixture of figures and forms found in the scene. Yeats injects drama and excitement into an otherwise every-day event through his use of form and colour and through an innate sense of timing. Through it focus on the start of the day A Small Fair succeeds in conveying the sense of anticipation that such an event inspired. Dr. Róisín Kennedy

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