The Ball Alley
Artist
Jack B Yeats
(1871 - 1957)
Datec. 1927
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions45.7 x 61 cm
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery.
Donated by the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland, 1973.
© The Estate of Jack B Yeats.
Object number1337
DescriptionThe son of the painter John Butler Yeats and brother of the poet W.B. Yeats, Jack B. Yeats lived for most of his childhood in Sligo with his maternal grandparents William and Elizabeth Pollexfen by whom he was especially adored. An enormously prolific artist, he produced approximately 1,200 paintings and around 700 drawings during the course of his lifetime. He also wrote short plays, illustrated books and contributed articles and illustrations to various publications including several to accompany J.M. Synge's 1905 Manchester Guardian article on life in the West of Ireland. Yeats's early work was mostly illustrative and the exuberant vitality of circuses, boxing rings, fairs and music halls, and the characters populating such worlds, provided rich sources of inspiration in his work. His depiction of distinctively Irish characters and rituals led Yeats to receive critical acclaim as a markedly Irish painter. The Ball Alley, which was developed from a 1905 sketch, depicts a sport which was once the cornerstone of Irish village life. The work reveals Yeats's uniquely expressive, painterly style and his employing a dramatic compositional arrangement to depict a hiatus in the fast-moving game where the intense interaction between players and spectators contrasts starkly with the bare wall filling up most of the canvas. (JO'D)
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