Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) The Ballad Singers’ Children 1...

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Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957)

The Ballad Singers’ Children 1903 watercolour on board, 25.4cms x 35.5 cm (10” x 14”), Signed lower right ‘Jack B. Yeats’

Exhibited: Central Hall, Dublin 1902 “Sketches of Life in the West of the Ireland”

Walker Art Gallery 1903 “Sketches in the West of Ireland” (Cat. No. 17)

Literature: Hilary Pyle. Jack B. Yeats: His Watercolours Drawings and Pastels (Irish Academic Press, Dublin 1993) No. 403, p. 114

Provenance: Collection of John Quinn, New York, 1903

In this poignant watercolour, Yeats depicts the children of an itinerant ballad singer who have been left to fend for themselves in a tent, while their parent, a ballad singer, is off at a nearby race meeting, trying to make a meagre living. Seated within the ‘bender’, or simple shelter made of a tarpaulin sheets stretched over branches, the three children shelter from wind and rain. The eldest, a barefoot girl, looks out into the torrential downpour, dark-eyed and fearful. Behind is a dry-stone wall, and in the distance, can be seen the tents of the race meeting in progress. Above are rain-filled clouds. Yeats conveys the impression of heavy rain by streaking the watercolour, using white highlights to emphasise raindrops spilling from the edge of the tent.

Born in Fitzroy Park, London in 1857, and fostered by his Sligo grandparents during six years of his childhood, from an early age Jack Yeats became a talented ‘jack of all trades’, producing watercolours, illustrations, plays for miniature theatre and ballads for broadsheets. Into these works he often introduced the figure of an “outsider", a person spurned by respectable society. These figures appear sometimes as pirates, and often as ballad singers plying their trade in village streets, or in circuses and theatres. Sometimes the singers are alone, sometimes they are surrounded by an admiring audience. Yeats often used the titles of ballads as titles for his painting.

Although Yeats’s paintings are invested with a magical quality, a mixture of whimsy, drama, romance, song and poetry, there is always an underlying focus on the joys and tragedies of everyday life, and a commentary on society, and occasionally politics. He saw in the world of fairgrounds, in competitions of strength, in ballad singers and horse racing, a living echo of ancient times in Ireland. His paintings and writings are patriotic, and clearly express a deep love for his native land: Yeats attended Sinn Fein meetings and learned the Irish language. In 1920 he closed an exhibition of his work in Dublin as a gesture in support of political prisoners. His sympathy with the poor and oppressed is evident in this fine watercolour, a work which has a significant provenance, as it was acquired around 1903 by his patron, the New York lawyer John Quinn.
Dr. Peter Murray, 2022