Auction Date:2011 Oct 10 @ 18:00 (UTC+1)
Location:Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
Artist: Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
Title: RESCUE MEN, 1949
Medium: oil on board
Signature: signed lower right; inscribed with title on reverse; also with typed label on reverse ["It is the wish of Mr. Jack B. Yeats that this painting shall be always kept under glass."]
Dimensions: 24 by 37cm., 9.5 by 14.5in.
Provenance: Provenance:Victor Waddington Gallery, Dublin, 1949; Where purchased by the present owner's family; Thence by descent
Exhibited:
Literature: Literature:Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, Vol. II, p. 885, catalogue no. 979 (as The Rescue Boat)
Note: Contained in original Victor Waddington frame.
Rescue Men depicts a group of men rowing in open water. The unusual viewpoint from inside the stern of the boat brings the viewer into the centre of the action. Looking across the bowed head and shoulders of the helmsman, the foreshortened composition centres on the dramatic figures of two oarsmen. On the right is the form of a large man, his body bent outwards as he heaves the oar through the water. Behind him to the left is a second figure whose head and shoulders are pushed backwards. The poses of the two sailors through the counter motions of their bodies suggest the movement of the boat through the heaving waves. Between the oarsmen the white prow of the vessel is visible. Its high position indicates the stormy nature of the sea and adds to the image of the pitching motion of travelling through the swell. The dark swirling clouds of blue in the sky further convey the idea of the tempestuous conditions in which the scene takes place and the inherent danger of the event.
Hilary Pyle has noted that Yeats treated the same subject of the rescue boat, albeit from a different viewpoint, in an illustration for A Broadside, in July 1914. In this version the helmsman holds a lantern over the side of the boat to guide the rowers in their rescue search. In Rescue Men he looks downwards, while the oarsmen have their backs to the horizon. It is the viewer who sees what lies ahead – a black horizon line and a stormy sea. As in so many of Yeats’ later paintings the work can be read as a metaphor for life. It looks back to the excitement of Yeats’ childhood around ships and boats in Sligo but it also refers to the ongoing struggles of adult life. The men in the boat are heroic figures. Unconscious of the risks they take, they concentrate on the task ahead. But created out of an intricate web of impasto paint, the figures, despite their strong physicality, appear almost ethereal with the sea and sky clearly visible through their bodies. The flecks of orange and the pinkish tones on the sailors indicate the presence of evening sunlight and introduce an element of warmth into the otherwise cool tonality of the white, blue and green. Through its inventive use of colour and form and its dramatic subject, the painting leads one’s imagination and powers of perception in unanticipated directions. Its deceptive simplicity is characteristic of Yeats’ work which seeks to awaken the viewer’s curiosity and draw it into the world of the painting.
Dr. Róisín Kennedy
Dublin, September 2011
Pyle, Hilary, Jack B. Yeats: Catalogue Raisonné of oil paintings, Andre Deutsch, 1992, catalogue no.979, Vol. II, p.885
Auction Location:
Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
Previewing Details:
8-10 October 2011
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
20% |
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