JACK B. YEATS, R.H.A. | THE TIDE RECEDING

Sold by the artist to Reeves Levanthal, USA, 1946;

Private collection, New York;

Sotheby's, London, 12 November 1986, lot 172;

Private collection, U.K., 1991

Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Vol. II., Andre Deutsch, London, 1992, no. 767, p.691

A solitary man in a pale blue suit and brightly coloured shoes reclines languidly on a beach, one arm propping his chin while he reads. By all appearances, it is not the weather for adopting such a leisurely pose. On the horizon a storm looms, the sea is rough and a flag blows strongly in the wind. Lost in his book or in his thoughts, the man appears oblivious to any such concerns.

The location could be one of several coastal towns in Sligo to which Yeats sometimes referred, or perhaps Bray in Co Wicklow. Behind the figure's head can be seen bathing huts, Yeats depicting their wheels with a dash of red. To the right of the picture are the remnants of a sand castle.

The state of the tide, as Hilary Pyle observes, fascinated Yeats from a very early period and other examples include, Low Tide (Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin) and High Water - Spring Tide (Boston Museum of Fine Arts). As is typical of Yeats, his subject alludes to something deeper. For an artist occupied with time - its passing, coming and goings and of journeys made - the tide resonate with these themes. Tides are a physical recording of nature's cycle and of life's transience. While now the tide recedes, it will soon return to wash away what it has revealed.  

The paint surface is wonderfully handled - sparse in the buildings which are delineated with clever strokes and heavy in the clouds on the horizon. The beach is a movement of fluid brushwork, as is the figure himself who nearly blends within it. The overall palette is soft and lighter in tone than typical of Yeats in this period. Here he reserves the strongest colour for the deep blue of the heavy clouds and flashes of red. It is a highly evocative work by Yeats, the painter-poet.