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Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
Gathering Seaweed, Mayo Coast (1909)
Oil on board, 23 x 35cm (9 x 13.75”)
Signed
Provenance: Important Irish Art Sale those rooms Sept 1977 Cat. No. 73 where purchased by current owners
Exhibited: • Jack B Yeats “Pictures of Ireland in the West of Ireland”
December 1910, Leinster Hall Dublin,
Catalogue No. 23
• “Aonach Exhibition” Dublin 1912 Jack B Yeats Exhibition
• “Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland”, Walker Art Gallery, London, July 1912, Catalogue No. 21
Literature: “Life in the West of Ireland” (1912), illustrated p.99; Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paint-
ings” by Hilary Pyle, 1992, Cat. No. 9, p.10
This early oil painting depicts a subject familiar from Jack B. Yeats’s work and from late 19th century paintings
of Irish rural life. A man loads a cart with seaweed gathered from the incoming tide.This activity was an impor-
tant part of the economy of the West coast. The seaweed was burned to produce kelp which was widely used as
fertiliser on land in the region. Its distribution provided islanders and very poor coastal dwellers with an income.
The process is described in J.M. Synge’s articles on the Congested District Boards, published in the Manchester
Guardian in 1905. Yeats collaborated with the writer on these articles, providing illustrations, including one of
Kelp Burning.
In his 1912 book, Life in the West of Ireland, Yeats reproduced this painting and several of the other illustrations
also refer to the kelp industry.
The Country Shop
, (1912, National Gallery of Ireland) depicts a shop in Belmullet in
which a transaction concerning kelp takes place. Another drawing,
Gathering Seaweed
, (c.1912, National Gallery
of Ireland) is a more dramatic version of the subject shown in this painting, in which crowds of men are loading
their carts on the seashore.
Hilary Pyle has linked
Gathering Sea Weed (Mayo Coast)
to a 1909 sketch by Yeats of Ballycastle, Co. Mayo,
(Sketchbook 151, National Gallery of Ireland).The painting is a tranquil image of a solitary figure at work in an
empty landscape with only his patient horse for company.The dark cloudy sky and the rolling waves indicate the
tempestuousness of the climate but the mauve tones of the sand and the even lines of the beach head suggest
peacefulness and continuity.The load of wet seaweed on the cart painted in strong blues, reds and oranges is the
focal point of the painting.The drama of its colours contrasts with the placid hues of the surrounding landscape.
Dr. Roisin Kennedy
October 2014
€30,000 - 50,000