Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) In a Dublin Waxworks (aka At the Wax Works) (1912) Oil on panel, 23 x 35.5cm (9 x 14) Signed Inscribed in the artist's hand, and on a distressed label verso, together with a James Bourlet & Sons, Dublin label and a Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art exhibition label Provenance: The Dawson Gallery, Dublin; The Hon. Garech Browne, Luggala, Co. Wicklow; Private Collection. Exhibited: Paris, 1912; London 1912, Allied Artists; Dublin, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, 1988, cat. no. 47. Literature: Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats, A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, cat. no. 34, illustrated, Vol 1 & 2. This early oil painting by Jack B. Yeats is inspired by a sketch that the artist made in 1905 in the famous World's Fair and Wax Works Exhibition which was located at 30 Henry Street, Dublin. The drawing is in the 'Dublin Gort' Sketchbook 106 [52], now in the Yeats Archive in the National Gallery of Ireland. It records the effigy of Marcus Anthony with the comment 'Thousands have been heard to say he must be alive' noted by Yeats beside the image. The Dublin Wax Works opened in 1893 and was a popular entertainment venue for Dubliners until it was burnt down during the 1916 Rising. There was a theatre upstairs and a penny bazaar at the entrance level. (1) The wax museum featured tableaux of famous historical figures including Parnell and Gladstone. Yeats painted a watercolour of its display based on the 'Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald' in 1914 and used this as an illustration for A Broadside in April of that year. This shows a similar figure of a young boy looking at the dramatic re-enactment of the scene, as found in this painting.(2) At the Wax Works shows a raggedly dressed youth gazing intently at a waxen figure of Marcus Anthony, the Roman general, lover of Cleopatra, who committed suicide in 30 BC. Anthony is dressed in a bizarre theatrical costume and has a clown like face. The hilt of his dagger protrudes from his stomach. To the left a penny slot is evident suggesting that a mechanical device may have caused the mannequin to move. Its left arm is articulated like that of a puppet. At least one exhibit at the Wax Works, a guillotine, operated in this fashion.(3) The boy is transfixed by the body in the coffin. His hand grips its edge and he appears to be momentarily transported to a world of adventure beyond the evident poverty of his real life. The latter is conveyed by the large tear in his coat sleeve through which his white shirt can be seen. The subject is almost a parody of a conventional deathbed scene but the boy's pose suggests genuine pathos. His alert and tender expression contrasts with the lifeless form of Marcus Anthony. The youth or versions of him reappear in many of Yeats's paintings such as Bachelor's Walk in Memory, (1915, National Gallery of Ireland) as a symbol of innocence and hope in the turmoil of contemporary events. The cut-off composition brings the viewer into proximity with the figures. Nothing distracts from the intensity of the encounter. The dark panelled interior of the room and the coffin is formed of thick brushstrokes. In contrast to the neutral tones of the background, purple and pinks are used in the costume and face of Marcus Anthony. The cushion beneath the head is a deep intense red. These warm colours contrast with the green-blue tones of his top, the blue-grey sides of the coffin and the green jacket and cap of the young boy. The composition is built up of the simple rectangular forms of the coffin and the architecture of the interior space. The latter includes a dark opening which accentuates the boy and sensitively intensifies the meeting between him and the bizarre figure that has captured his imagination. The painting reveals Yeats's understanding of the expressive potential of oil as a medium for his work. It was exhibited at the major international forum for modern art, the Salon des Independants, in Paris in 1912. RóisÃn Kennedy, May 2021 1 F.W. Gumley, 'Remembering', Dublin Historical Record, 33, no. 3, 1980, pp.96-97. 2 Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats. His Cartoons and illustrations, Irish Academic Press, 1994, p.269. 3 Gumley, 'Remembering', p.97.