Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 1st June 2022

70 41 JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957) The Folded Heart, (1943) Oil on canvas, 34.5 x 44.5cm (13½ x 17½”) Signed Provenance: Collection of Mrs D.H. Daly, London; Victor Waddington, London; Private Collection, Dublin Exhibited: Dublin, 1943, Royal Hibernian Academy, Annual Exhibition, no. 161; London, 1943, London Group; Waterford, 1947; London, 1973, Victor Waddington, Oil paintings , no.10 (col.repro); Dublin, Octo- ber 2010, IMMA ‘ The Moderns ’ cat.no.50 (illus p.79); Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings , Andre Deutsch, London 1992, No.570, vol. 1 € 250,000 - 350,000 Over the course of his career as a painter in oils, Jack B. Yeats produced several paintings that deal with the lone fig- ure in an interior space. These range from works such as the depiction of the cluttered front room of The Quaywork- er’s Home (1927, Private Collection), to the dramatic picture strewn drawing room in About to Write a Letter (1935, National Gallery of Ireland) to the spartan, Old Walls , (1945, National Gallery of Ireland). Yeats’s interest in theatre and his own experience as a playwright made him keenly aware of scenery and set design and their ability to impact on the actor and the audience. This is reflected in his treatment of the subject in his paintings. In The Folded Heart , the blank walls and empty space create an ambiguous setting. A young woman stands at an open drawer, folding linen. Her extended white arms contrast with her downcast face. Her expression is one of quiet contemplation, as if she is thinking of something else while engaged in this mechanical task. The title, the folded heart, further suggests private thoughts and memories. The unembellished room and the lack of personal belongings indicate that this is a liminal space, perhaps a boarding house or the home of the woman’s employer. The composition of The Folded Heart is deceptively simple. Subtle movement and harmonies and contrasts of col- our and tone pervade the work. A window with an iron balcony dominates the left-hand side of the composition. The opening is covered by a translucent curtain through which the warm pink and yellow tones of daylight penetrate. The molten colours of this corner of the room may hint at the emotions or thoughts of the woman. This fluid peripheral space counterposes the more solid core of the room in which the figure is positioned. She stands in the even light of the interior, in front of the grey wall. Her pink top and green blue skirt are scratched out of pigment. The colours echo the deep green of the skirting board and the pinky tones of the plaster behind. The chest of drawers completes the composition by creating a large, dark, almost ghostly form on the right. It is built out of myriad strokes of different colours, giving it a strangely organic quality. Dr Roisin Kennedy, May 2022