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Another Chance

Artist Jack B. Yeats (Irish | British, 1871-1957)
Place of OriginIreland
Date1944
DimensionsPainting: 36 × 48 in. (91.4 × 121.9 cm)
Frame: 44 3/4 × 56 7/8 × 3 in. (113.7 × 144.5 × 7.6 cm)
MediumOil on canvas
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1949.15
Not on View
Label TextWhen I begin a painting I think I’m in control, but after a while the paint controls me, and as I go on, we work together…the title comes later. Brother of renowned poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939), Jack Butler Yeats was during his lifetime as celebrated in Ireland for his painting as his brother was for his poetry. This dramatic painting of a survivor at sea was made during a period of intense creativity for the artist, who was then in his 70s. His method of painting at this time often involved squeezing the paint from the tube directly onto the canvas or applying it with a palette knife or even his thumbs to achieve a churning, active surface of thick swirls and dabs of color. The great Irish playwright Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) was a strong advocate of Yeats’ work, writing, “Yeats is with the great of our time... because he brings light, as only the great dare to bring light, to the issueless predicament of existence.”Published ReferencesArt Digest, vol. 25, no. 13, April 1, 1951, p. 11.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 396, repr.

Exhibition HistoryLeeds, Temple Newsam House.

London, Tate Gallery.

Aberdeen, Art Gallery.

Derby, Museum and Art Gallery, Paintings by Jack B. Yeats, 1948-1949 (London, Aberdeen and Derby showings organized by The Arts Council).

Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art.

Washington, Phillips Gallery.1951.

San Francisco, M. H. de Young Gallery.

Art Gallery of Toronto.1951.

Detroit Institute of Arts.

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Jack B. Yeats, A First American Retrospective Exhibition, 1951-1952, no. 9.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 1951.

Montreal, The Waddington Galleries, Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) Paintings, 1961, repr. no. 11.

Still Life Painter
Jack Beal
1978-1979
DERVISH
Jack Youngerman
1970
Woman in a Black Hat
Pablo Picasso
1909
The Agony in the Garden
Domenikos Theotokopoulos, called El Greco
about 1590-1595
Ulysses and Penelope
Francesco Primaticcio
about 1560
The Flight into Egypt
Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo dal Ponte)
about 1540-1545
Avenue at Chantilly
Paul Cézanne
1888
Houses at Auvers
Vincent van Gogh
1890
Water Lilies
Claude Monet
about 1922

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