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拍品专文
‘The true artist has painted the picture because he wishes to hold it again for his pleasure – and for always – a moment, and because he is impelled by his human affections to pass on the moment to his fellows and to those who come after him. Those painters who have the greatest affection for their own country and their own people will paint them best’ - J. Yeats
Leslie’s father Victor Waddington and Jack Yeats enjoyed a close professional and personal relationship, which spanned over twenty years. Believed to have met in 1931, it was not until the early 1940s that Victor Waddington became Yeats’ dealer, successfully establishing his status as one of the finest Irish painters of the 20th Century. He helped organise retrospective exhibitions in the United States, Canada and a centenary exhibition in Dublin in 1971 and relentlessly promoted him to private and public collectors alike, telling of Yeats’ indisputable talents as a painter.
Their closeness was expressed in a letter drafted from Victor to the artist in the summer of 1955, in which he regrettably described that Waddington Galleries in Dublin would be closing and relocating to London. His letter asks for the artist’s approval and continued support: ‘I hope that I personally will continue to be your personal agent and representative. Both here and internationally I believe that I am the Yeats Man’ (V. Waddington, quoted in B. Arnold, ‘The Yeats Man’, in Jack B. Yeats, exh. cat., RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, 1995, n.p.).
It is therefore, fitting that Leslie would own one of Yeats’ paintings, in particular a scene that speaks of his Irish roots. Poetically depicting a picturesque weir viewed through a window, the present work captures Yeats’ wonderful expression of colour, deploying a series of thick, rhythmic strokes to convey an innate sense of drama and feeling. Often foregoing a brush, instead choosing to work with a palette knife or his bare hands, Yeats displays his instinctive style in The Weir.
Leslie’s father Victor Waddington and Jack Yeats enjoyed a close professional and personal relationship, which spanned over twenty years. Believed to have met in 1931, it was not until the early 1940s that Victor Waddington became Yeats’ dealer, successfully establishing his status as one of the finest Irish painters of the 20th Century. He helped organise retrospective exhibitions in the United States, Canada and a centenary exhibition in Dublin in 1971 and relentlessly promoted him to private and public collectors alike, telling of Yeats’ indisputable talents as a painter.
Their closeness was expressed in a letter drafted from Victor to the artist in the summer of 1955, in which he regrettably described that Waddington Galleries in Dublin would be closing and relocating to London. His letter asks for the artist’s approval and continued support: ‘I hope that I personally will continue to be your personal agent and representative. Both here and internationally I believe that I am the Yeats Man’ (V. Waddington, quoted in B. Arnold, ‘The Yeats Man’, in Jack B. Yeats, exh. cat., RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin, 1995, n.p.).
It is therefore, fitting that Leslie would own one of Yeats’ paintings, in particular a scene that speaks of his Irish roots. Poetically depicting a picturesque weir viewed through a window, the present work captures Yeats’ wonderful expression of colour, deploying a series of thick, rhythmic strokes to convey an innate sense of drama and feeling. Often foregoing a brush, instead choosing to work with a palette knife or his bare hands, Yeats displays his instinctive style in The Weir.