Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART Auction Wednesday 24th March 2021

100 90 JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957) Gathering Seaweed on the Mayo Coast Oil on board, 23 x 35cm (9 x 14’’) Signed Provenance: Sale, these rooms Sept 1977 cat. no. 73; also 3/12/14, lot 22, where purchased by the current owner. 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 Paintings , 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 important 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 tempestuous- ness 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 € 50,000 - 70,000 CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOGRAPHS AND BIDDING