Adam's IMPORTANT IRISH ART 4 DECEMBER 2024

The painter Jack B. Yeats and the trainer Vincent O’Brien shared a unique relationship with horses that won them both international acclaim. The exquisitely painted horses of Yeats gallop, canter, and dance from some of his most famous work, while O’Brien’s bluebloods of the turf domi- nated the racecourses of the world. It was fitting then, that when Vincent and his wife Jacqueline, a photographer and writer of distinc- tion, adorned the walls of their internationally famous Ballydoyle Stud in Co. Tipperary, their ex- pertly trained eyes turned to the work of another master, Jack B. Yeats. Now more than half a century later four Yeats oils from their collection, all beautifully crafted and two dominated by horses, are being offered for sale: Horsemen, He Reads a Book, Willie Reilly, and The Window with a view over the Town. Also, from their collection comes a large, colour- ful, and poignant oil painting, Old John’s Cottage, Connemara by William Orpen, which evokes the interior of a humble thatched cottage in Co. Mayo with two sad but stoic peasants, silently lamenting the loss of a grand-daughter to emigration. These five works from the Vincent and Jacqueline O’Brien collection reflect something of the Ireland the artist and the horse trainer inhabited during their lifetimes. “Growing up in the countryside, Jack spent many of his formative years surrounded by horses, a symbol so frequently used by him it has become known as the Yeats’ horse” wrote Jenny O’Gorman in the art journal HASTA. “Over the course of his life, he captured the unique character and energy of these animals.” If Yeats captured their movement in oils, O’Brien harnessed that energy, his singular understanding of thoroughbreds making him the outstanding horse trainer of the 20th century. As well as their unerring eye, both maintained a meticulous attention to details, Yeats carefully cataloguing almost all his art works and O’Brien recording in minute detail the daily lives of the horses he kept in training from the moment they arrived to their departure to stud. Vincent O’Brien grew up among horses and such was his facility with them that he became known as ‘The Master’ of Ballydoyle, the stables in Co. Tipperary where he created an international cen- tre of excellence. Born in Churchtown, Co. Cork in 1917 O’Brien grew up at a time when horses were still part of Irish landscape, bearing the burden of a work- ing farm. But on Sunday the young O’Brien was transformed, riding out to hunts and Point to Point meetings as an amateur jockey. Then came his career as a trainer, launched in 1943, which over the following half century saw him walk away with the glittering prizes of the turf at home and abroad. From his first winner, Good Days (1944), onwards he dominated National Hunt racing winning three Cheltenham Gold Cups with Cottage Rake in 1948, 1949 and 1950, followed by three successive Aintree Grand Nationals, Early Mist (1953), Royal Tan (1954) and Quare Times (1955). In an astonishing pivot he switched to flat racing, winning numerous classics including the Epsom Derby, the Blue Ribband of horseracing, six times with Larkspur, Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Roberto, The Min- strel and Golden Fleece, as well as three Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. “Ireland at that time was where the English bought their horses” said his wife, Jacqueline, “but to think of a horse actually being trained here and brought over to England to win their best races was absolutely unheard of.” With success and wealth came the opportunity to acquire the artworks of Jack. B. Yeats, who was as brilliant and prolific a painter as O’Brien was as a horse trainer. The special eye they had for horses was the bond that united them. Born in 1871 the younger brother of the poet William Butler Yeats, Jack B. Yeats “always loved horses” wrote Thomas McGreevey in a catalogue for Tate Britain, describing several of his horse paintings, before referring to the “incomparable mastery with which he can capture their fine artic- Vincent & Jacqueline O’Brien