Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 29th April 2019

58 46 Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Spring Tide, Schull (1919) signed ‘Jack B Yeats’ lower right oil on board 23.40 x 36.20cm (9.25 x 14.25in) Provenance: Victor Waddington Galleries, 1942; James Adam, Dublin, 2nd July 1987; James Adam & Bonhams, 29 May 2002, Lot 22; Private Collection Exhibited: 1922 Dublin (1) Literature: Jack B. Yeats - A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, by Hilary Pyle: Volume I: No. 125 page 110, illustrated. €50,000-€70,000 ($56,179-$78,651) (£42,372-£59,322) In 1915, with World War One at its height, Jack Butler Yeats and his wife Cottie made the first of two trips to Skibbereen and Schull; the second visit took place four years later. Of the sketches made during the first visit, it seems that only one, The Old Ass , was translated into an oil painting. This is surprising, given the number of sketches Yeats made as he travelled, but can be linked to a nervous breakdown he suffered not long after his return to Dublin. It was a profound crisis and loss of confidence, probably sparked by the Rising of Easter 1916. However, three years later, Yeats had recovered, and the second visit he and Cottie made to West Cork, in 1919, resulted in a wonderful series of paintings, all on wood panels measuring 9” x 14”. These were panels that the artist probably carried with him, in a specially designed case, as he travelled. The paintings from this Skibbereen/Schull series, listed in Hilary Pyle’s catalogue raisonné, include Clear Island , Lake Near Skibbereen , Near Schull , Schull , Castle Near Skibbereen , Roaring Water, Low Tide , and The Bridge, Skibbereen . The painting Spring Tide, Schull forms part of this group. All date from 1919 and were included in Dublin exhibitions in the early 1920’s.The first work listed above depicts the island of Cape Clear, while the last, a view of horses grazing beside the bridge on the Ilen river, is now in the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The tower house depicted in Castle Near Skibbereen is not at Lough Hyne, but rather another of the O’Driscoll strongholds around Roaringwater Bay—Old Court, on the river between Skibbereen and Baltimore. The title of another work from this 1919 series, Flowing Tide, Inishbeg, Near Skibbereen, depicts a scene close to Old Court and hints that Yeats visited the home of the McCarthy-Morrogh family at Inishbeg; a house that four decades later would be rented by the American artist Morris Graves. A tenth painting from this trip, Long Island Sound, Schull depicts islands in Roaringwater Bay, while a later work, The Sleeping Tinker , dated to 1921, can also be linked to this series, as it also bears the alternative title ‘Skibbereen’. In the titles of practically all his views of the West Cork coastline, Yeats includes mention of tidal conditions—as in ‘Spring’, ‘low’ and ‘flowing’. He was a keen sailor, delighting in any opportunity to explore the islands of Roaringwater Bay, and so would have noted the conditions of time and tide that affect all aspects of navigation amongst Carbery’s ‘Hundred Isles’. Delighted with Skibbereen, Yeats wrote to his friend and patron, the lawyer John Quinn, in New York, describing his visit: There was good painting ground near to the town. All the creeks and islands of the bay were delightful. You remember ‘Carbery’s hundred isles’ in the ballad? I used to look up in the map for where there was a quay marked and walk there; and nearly every little creek had a quay at the creek-head. Though we had not a boat at this time. The distances from Skibbereen were too great. I have never yet got too much of rowing to a quay, going ashore, making the boat fast, exploring the land, coming back to the quay again, casting off, and rowing away. (Letter to John Quinn, 8 October 1919. New York Public Library; quoted in Pyle, Catalogue Raisonné, 116) Yeats captures the essence of Roaringwater Bay in Spring Tide , Schull . The tidal races along this coastline can reach three knots, and a combination of wind and tide makes navigation amongst “Carbery’s Hundred Isles” difficult at times. Yeats seems to have taken his view from the Cusheen foreshore at Schull, looking south-west, towards Long Island and Goat Island. The key identifying feature is the Bull Rock mark, a navigation mark at the entrance to Schull Harbour. However, probably because he was working from earlier pencil sketches made on the spot, the disposition of identifiable islands is not quite accurate. He has placed Cape Clear to the right, in the far distance, and what appears to be Baltimore, again in the distance, to the left, with Sherkin Island in between. The closer islands look to be Castle, Long, and Goat, in that order. Yeats does not attempt to depict the sea in a classic Victorian manner; his approach is more Impressionist, but nonetheless with deft brush strokes and an adroit mixing of colours literally as they are being applied to the panel, he accurately depicts the turbulent seas of Roaringwater Bay. Peter Murray, March 2019