There is No Night

1949

Oil on canvas

102 x 153 cm

Purchased, 1980. Additional Notes: Mrs A. V. Ryan; Leo Smith, Dublin.

1312

Jack B. Yeats attended a number of art schools in London including the South Kensington School of Art and Westminster School of Art. However, his painting style, whilst wholly modern, remained independent of any modernist school. As with There is No Night, the title of which is adapted from the Book of Revelations (22, 5) Yeats would sometimes use titles from literary sources which he would modify for his own use. While his early work was predominantly illustrative, Yeats later felt little desire to explain his painting. This creative independence was admired by many including Samuel Beckett, a friend of the artist. Boats and the sea captured his imagination for his entire life and this love may have initially been sparked by his grandfather's sea trading business. Yeats was also deeply attached to horses and donkeys and these subjects often acquired additional symbolic significance in his painting. There is No Night is painted using thick impasto oil paint. With a characteristic balance between expressive brushstrokes and control, areas of pure colour squeezed directly from a paint tube and barely painted areas of canvas, Yeats situates a rising man and galloping white horse in a textured, joyful and revelatory landscape.