Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 25th September 2024

36 24 JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957) On the Hazard (1911) Oil on panel 29 x 38cm (11 ½ x 15”) Signed Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by Serge Philipson, Dublin, May 1948; Christie’s, London, 20 May 1999, lot 132; So- theby’s, London, 6 May 2010, lot 39; Sotheby’s, London, 19 November 2013, lot 81; Sotheby’s, London, 19 November, 2019, lot 32, where purchased by the present owner. Exhibited: Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1911, no.134; Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Jack B. Yeats, A Centenary Exhibition , September - December 1971, no.28 Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings , London, 1992, no.27, illustrated p.26 € 30,000 - 40,000 This early oil by Jack B. Yeats shows a group of cab- bies playing cards by candlelight on the side of a car- riage. The title, On the Hazard is a pun on the role of chance and unpredictability, and perhaps even the dangers of gambling, in the outcome of the game, and on a Dublin expression, ‘on the hazard’. This re- fers to the place where cabs waited for hire. James Joyce used it in Ulysses , (1922), when he wrote, ‘Mr Bloom went round the corner and passed the droop- ing nags of the hazard’. Four men sit around the cab, one is perched on the top, and leans over to watch the game. Two, their fac- es lit by the candlelight, are engrossed in their cards. A fourth sits with his back to the viewer and is shown as a dark silhouette wearing a large hat and cloak. To the right the wheels and horse trappings of the vehi- cle and part of the waiting horse can be deciphered. The composition is cut-off adding a modern note to the subject. Hilary Pyle has suggested the influence of Caravag- gio in the dramatic use of chiaroscuro (light-dark) in the composition. But also, and more feasibly, that of the French realist and political cartoonist, Honoré Daumier.[i] Yeats, who owned few art history books, had a copy of Henri Frantz’s book on the artist, which was given to him and his wife, Cottie, by his father and sisters in 1904.[ii] Yeats shared Daumier’s inter- est in the lives of working class men and women and in the depiction of the impact of poverty on urban dwellers. The painting is dominated by deep brown tones which are alleviated by the bright yellow light and by flashes of intense blue and green, as seen in the neck scarf of one of the cabbies and in the design of the playing cards. To the right a dash of strong red indicates the reflection of light on the cab wheel. The light is skillfully used to delineate the poses and expressions of the cabbies who sit in a relaxed and companionable fashion. The face of the man looking down takes on a ghostly quality as its features are transformed by the shadows into a mask-like form. The two players, whose features are clearly present- ed, appear to be ‘poker-faced’ with clenched expres- sions that indicate their deep involvement and enjoy- ment of the game. The painting is a rare depiction of a forgotten aspect of Irish urban life, one that was also found across Europe and North America. Here Yeats’s vivid and original composition, its close-up view of the interaction results in an intense and cap- tivating work of art. The painting was acquired from the artist by the not- ed collector, Serge Philipson, a Frenchman who set- tled in Ireland, in 1948. Dr Róisín Kennedy August 2024 [i] Hilary Pyle, Jack B Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London, 1992, no.27. [ii] This is now in the Yeats Archive, National Gallery of Ireland, Y1/