JACK B. YEATS, R.H.A. | ON THE HAZARD

Acquired directly from the artist by Serge Philipson, Dublin, May 1948;

Christie's, London, 20 May 1999, lot 132;

Sotheby's, London, 6 May 2010, lot 39;

Sotheby's, London, 19 November 2013, lot 81, where purchased by the present owner

Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, London, 1992, no.27, illustrated p.26

Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1911, no.134;

Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Jack B. Yeats, A Centenary Exhibition, September - December 1971, no.28

The dramatic chiaroscuro of the present, early oil relates to Yeats's interest in Honoré Daumier at the time. In the dark moody background, a side-car has pulled up at a cab-stand and its driver is peering over into the foreground providing an apt backdrop for the group of three cabbies completely engrossed in their game of cards, their faces lit-up by the flickering candle light at the centre of the composition.