Man in a train, Thinking by Jack Butler Yeats
A painting about a loser proved to be a winner at de Veres auction of Irish art in Dublin tonight. Man on a train, thinking by Jack B. Yeats sold for a hammer price of 220,000. It was the top lot in a successful sale which brought in 850,000 on the hammer and just over one million with fees. Les Enfants et les Ombres by William John Leech made 56,000, A sunny morning in the fields, Pont-Aven by Walter Osborne made 38,000,Paul Henry’s Cottages, Connemara sold for 27,000, Anzio, The Overpass, III by Hughie O’Donoghue made 18,500. Other prices achieved include Yellow Flags, Sligo by Norah McGuinness (9,000); Black Skirt still life by John Shinnors (15,500); Two by Rowan Gillespie (11,500); Box Four, 1969 by F.E. McWilliam (14,500): The Old Fountain, Madrid by Walter Osborne (17,ooo); A Hooker and a Nobbie by Yeats (40,000) and Painting, 1930 by Mainie Jellett (16,000).
The story behind Man in a train, thinking was recounted by Yeats at a dinner of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1929. Travelling by train to the west of Ireland he met a sickly looking man in a buttoned up collar who looked ill. Inquiring whether he was alright the man explained that he had bought a ticket for the Calcutta Sweepstake for one pound and sold it for two. It was the winning ticket and brought in 100,000. Yeats said words to the effect that if that had happened to him he would have cut his throat. To his consternation his fellow traveller replied: ‘That is just what I have done, sir”.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for November 25, 2015).