ADAM'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 24th September 2025

36 17 JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957) Hot Weather / A Hot Day (1913) Oil on board, 19 x 27.5cm (9 x 14”) Signed Provenance: The Artist’s Estate; Private Collection, Dublin. Exhibited: Dublin, Mills Hall, Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland , Feb/Mar 1914 (cat. no.20); London, Walker Art Gallery, June/July 1914 (cat. no.11); Dublin, Mills Hall, Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland , Apr/May 1919 (cat. no.15). Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings , London, 1992, no.64, illustrated p.56. € 40,000 - 60,000 This vibrant landscape was inspired by Jack B. Yeats’s visit to Kerry in 1913 when he spent time in the area learning Irish. He declared in a letter written after his return, ‘Tír gan teanga tír gan anam’. (‘A country without a language is a country without a soul’.) [1] . While there he filled several sketchbooks with draw- ings of the countryside, towns and sights that he came across. A series of over twenty pure landscapes based on the scenery around Mount Brandon, Lough Gill, Castlegregory and Tralee Bay was produced. Most of these were exhibited in Dublin and London in 1914. This work, one of the series, is probably a view of the west shore of Tralee Bay. The paint is thickly applied in diverse brushstrokes. The grey- blue sky is smooth with a straight horizon line where it meets the calm sea below. In the foreground the sandy soil is made of swirling pink and white pigment on which the stalks of green marron grass sway in the breeze. To the right a rock covered in seaweed forms a key motif of deep reds, blues and brown tones that evoke the sodden watery terrain that contrasts with the prevailing hot, dry topography in the rest of the painting. The subtle interaction of tones and colour in addition to the sense of movement that pervades the scene make this a dramatic interpretation of the distinctive geography of this part of the Kerry coastline. Dr. Roisin Kennedy [1] Quoted in H. Pyle, Jack B Yeats. A Biography, London, 1970, p.118.