Yeats, (Jack B.) RHA A unique and important group of six ear...

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€3,000 - €5,000

Yeats, (Jack B.) RHA A unique and important group of six early Jack Yeats Catalogues of 'Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland,' from the collection of his friend Lady Gregory, two decorated with original watercolour drawings by the artist, a third with buyers' names added in the artist's hand. 
Jack Yeats began exhibiting his West of Ireland drawings and paintings about 1899, when he was 28 years old, and over the next 30 years he  held about 30 exhibitions, mostly in halls which he hired himself in Dublin and London, making all the arrangements and paying the costs himself, until eventually he was contracted on a professional basis by Victor Waddington Galleries. The catalogues for his self-organised exhibitions were produced in very small numbers and are now of the greatest rarity.
The present group comes from the collection of his friend and supporter Augusta Lady Gregory, with provenance through her family and the collector and publisher Colin Smythe. Four of the catalogues date from 1901-2, within his first few years as a professional painter, the other two from 1910 and 1914. Each catalogue lists the works offered with their prices. Four of the six include printed vignette drawings by the artist. One, a twelve-page booklet sold for threepence, includes substantial contributions by George Russell (AE), W.B. Yeats and others.

The following are the catalogues included:
* 1901. London, Walker Art Gallery. Sketches of Life  in the West of Ireland and Elsewhere, 3pp (single folded sheet), listing 44 paintings at prices ranging from 3 guineas to 10. This copy uniquely embellished by the artist for Lady Gregory with a stencil of a horse's head on upper cover, circa 2" x 1 1/2", hand coloured in brown wash and cross-hatched in ink.
* 1901, 23 October - 2nd November. Dublin, 9 Merrion Row, printed by Sealy, Bryers & Walker. Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland. 4pp (single folded sheet), listing 43 paintings, prices between 3 and 10 guineas, with short extracts from R.A.M. Stevenson, Turgenev ('Always follow the impulse of your heart') and W.B.Yeats. This copy uniquely embellished by the artist for Lady Gregory with a watercolour and wash drawing of a horse's head in blue, circa 1 1/2" square. The date and address inscribed in Lady Gregory's hand on upper cover.
* 1902, 18-30 August. Dublin, Wells Central Hall. Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland. Price Threepence. Booklet in blue printed covers, 12pp, listing 37 paintings, prices between 3 and 12 guineas includes three printed vignette sketches by the artist, with articles by A.E. [George Russell] ('An Artist of Gaelic Ireland') and T.W. R[olleston], 2 pages of advertisements at rear for Yeats' plays and the Broadsheets published by Elkin Mathews.
* The same exhibition, 3pp (single folded sheet), presumably for those who did not wish to spend 3d on the booklet (above). This copy uniquely inscribed by the artist for Lady Gregory, the titles of paintings which were sold crossed out in ink and with the buyers' names written at side in Yeats' hand: one painting bought by Redmond Morris (later Lord Killanin), one each by a Mr. Byrne, Miss Pamela [Coleman Smith] and R.A. Garnett, and no fewer than seven by the Irish-American lawyer John Quinn.
* 1910, 8-21 December. Dublin, Leinster Hall, printed by Tower Press. Pictures of  Life in the West of Ireland. Grey card with printed vignette of an old tramp, 4pp (single folded sheet), listing 42 paintings, prices between 3 and 8 guineas. Traces of mounting (in Lady Gregory's scrapbook) on back. 1914, [29 June] - 18 July, London, Walker Art Gallery. Pictures of Life in the West of Ireland. Grey card, 4pp (single folded sheet), listing 40 paintings (many with Kerry titles), prices between 3 and 40 guineas.
The August 1902 exhibition in Dublin changed Jack Yeats' life. It marked his first meeting with the Irish-American lawyer John Quinn, who was brought to the show by Lady Gregory (who was briefly Quinn's lover). A connoisseur of modern European art, particularly the French impressionists, Quinn was bowled over by Yeats' work and bought no fewer than nine paintings (the seven marked in Lady Gregory's catalogue, and two others which presumably he bought later);  the total came to more than £100 , a very significant sum in those days. The day after the exhibition ended, Quinn and Yeats ravelled by train and side-car to Killeeneen in East Galway, where they visited the grave of the Gaelic poet Raftery and took part in a Feis, going later to Lady Gregory's home at Coole nearby. For the rest of his life Quinn remained a friend and a constant supporter both of Jack and of W.B. Yeats, and also of their elderly and impecunious father, John Butler Yeats, whom he minded and supported for the last fifteen years of his life in New York.
The 1914 exhibition in London was Jack Yeats' last for more than four years. The Great War began six weeks after its conclusion, brining normal commercial life to a close, and driving Yeats to the edge of a breakdown.

Overall, this is a superb collection of early Yeats catalogues. Individually, all these catalogues are rare; as a group, with their attractive decorations and embellishments and their compelling personal association, they are certainly unique.