Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 30TH MARCH 2022

48 31 JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957) Porter Pen, ink and watercolour, 30 x 32cm (11¾ x 12½’’) Signed Provenance: Collection of Oliver St. John Gogarty; probably these rooms, 5th April 1979 (as ‘Aran Man at Bar’); Sale, Sotheby’s London, September 13th 2016, lot no.1; Private Collection. Literature: Hilary Pyle, ‘ The Different Worlds of Jack B. Yeats: His Cartoons and Illustrations’ , 1994, no.1369, p.188, illustrated p.187. € 10,000 - 15,000 The artist’s depiction of the interior of a country pub or shebeen is one that illustrates Yeats’ fondness for and interest in the places and people of the west of Ireland. The years spent as a child in and around Sligo when living with his maternal grandparents, the Pollexfens, provided much inspiration in later years for such works as Porter . Originally produced as an illustration for The Aran Islands by his friend John Millington Synge in 1907, it is one of a series of twelve drawings capturing the lives, character and hardships of the people living on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. The sallow complexion of the central figure references the influence of Spanish blood on the people of the west coast, but also on the hard weather-exposed lives of both fisher- men and farmers. The young bearded man, standing at the bar with a pint of stout before him, is set apart from the group of older men in the back room and gazes directly at the viewer, emphasising his solitude. These illustrations represent some of Yeats’ most important records of the period, and came about when he was commissioned in 1905 by the Manchester Guardian to accompany Synge and report on the congested areas of the western coast of Ireland.