Lissadell House and Gardens, Sligo, Ireland

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Jack Yeats letter Lissadell Collection

EXHIBITION CLOSED

Jack B. Yeats at Lissadell

THE YEATS GALLERY EXHIBITION

OPENED BY

LEONARD COHEN

01 AUGUST, 2010


"No one creates. The artist assembles memories." So said Jack Yeats and his most passionate memories are of his childhood in the Sligo: "My river" is how he describes his vigorous and brilliantly coloured painting of Drumcliff River framed by Ben Bulben, first exhibited in 1951.

My River JBY Lissadell Collection

My River

"It is a part of the misfortune of Ireland that nearly all the characteristics which give colour and attractiveness to Irish life are bound up with a social condition that is near to penury," wrote playwright John Millington Synge, reporting on his travels in the West of Ireland with compatriot Jack Yeats in 1905. The pair were writing for the English newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. Synge's reports, accompanied by Jack's ink drawings, were published in this paper in June and July 1905.

Yeats at Lissadell

The Boat Builder is based partially on Jack's drawing Boat-Building at Carna, illustrating a report by Synge on the Galway boat builders, and published in the Manchester Guardian on 28 June, 1905. The painting was completed in 1923, and is now on display in the Yeats' Gallery at Lissadell.

Boatbuilders by JBY Lissadell Collection

The boat builder

 


MORE PAINTINGS

JBY at Lissadell
Mailcar by JBW Lissadell Collection

The Waterfall and The Mailcar

 

IRISH READING TEXTBOOK FOR CHILDREN ILLUSTRATED BY JACK YEATS

Jack Yeats at Lissadell

Jack Yeats at Lissadell


BROADSIDES

Metal man

Jack also edited and illustrated the monthly magazine The Broadside with brother W. B. and sisters Lily and Lolly.