Jack B. Yeats: His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels

Jack B. Yeats, son of a painter and brother of the poet, is undoubtedly the outstanding Irish painter of this century. His work is collected by all the major galleries of modern art, and is currently attracting very high prices. In 1970 Hilary Pyle published an excellent biography of Yeats, and since then she has been working on the complete catalogue of his works: a lavish oils catalogue came out in 1992. Yeats is unique among Irish artists in that he spent the first twelve years of his career working solely in watercolour, bringing the technique to a perfection comparable with Turner and Cezanne, riot to choosing oil as his medium. This watercolour catalogue includes over 700 examples of his work dating from 1897 to 1910, with further examples from earlier and later periods. For each entry there is technical data (comprising tide of painting, measurements, signature if signed, dates and details of its being exhibited, etc.) with an explanatory paragraph where needed. There are numerous thumbnail reproductions for identification, and sixteen pages of colour illustrations.