Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 1st June 2022

68 Dusk is gently setting in, the evening light drawing out and casting pale pink highlights across the clouds. The sunsets’ reflection is captured in the still waters of the river below, while deep blue shadows fall across the rolling hills in the distance. A street of houses stretches off to the left-hand side of the composition and bends swiftly out of view. Smoke can be seen rising slowly from the small townhouses of Skibbereen village. The two boys standing with their backs to us on the bridge appear animated, looking down on a scene below. Their excitement is wonderfully captured in the young boy reaching his arm across his companion to share in his delight. We notice a smile on the other boy’s face with his cheeks lifting in amusement. The boys’ interest seems to be directed at the two horses who are seen grazing in the field beyond. They pay no heed to these on lookers, continuing their evening meal, necks bowed gracefully. The face of the white horse is beautifully rendered by Yeats, the ears tucked back, large eyes searching in the long grass. He even manages to capture the tension of the muscles in the horse’s jaw while eating. Yeats has a wonderful ability to suggest or gesture towards moments in his compositions without fully revealing the whole scene. We are not aware of any relationship between the figures, it seems as they have all by chance happened upon the same vantage spot. The two boys may be visiting the village on holidays, excited by seeing horses in the wild for the first time. Or are local to the town and thrilled at being allowed to stay out later than usual in the summer evenings, stopping by the bridge to visit the paddock. Their excitement does not seem to have affected the two female figures who gaze calmly out into the distance, enjoying the sunset. This work is an excellent example of this earlier period in Yeats style dominated by Romantic depictions of the West coast of Ireland, of its landscape and people. There is a strong use of line in the work and it reflects his time working as an illustrator, sketching in ink and watercolour the experiences of both rural and urban Irish life. While his style will become much more abstracted in the immediate years following this work, in this example the figures are painted with great attention to detail. In particular the features of the woman’s profile, the sharp angle of her jaw and nose, a glimpse of her red hair peeking out from under her hat. For the other figure who is turned away from us, her hat is adorned with a beautiful arrangement of blue summer flowers. He expertly handles the drapery of both women’s coats, showing the cut and folds of the fabric. They complement each other, standing side by side in dusky pink and pale blue. Although the scale of work is extensive, he uses a closely contained composition, placing the figures in the fore- ground of the picture plain, to create a greater sense of depth and distance to the surrounding landscape. The upright pillar of the bridge juts dramatically out into corner of the work directing our eyeline across the middle of the composition to the town and hills in the distance. There is an openness and breath to the painting. By using the bridge as horizontal plain, Yeats has provided us with a similar vantage point to that of the figures, as if we are standing behind them revelling in the shared twilight spectacle. Niamh Corcoran, May 2022