The circus and the travelling fair is the theme of the current exhibition of Jack B. Yeats at the National Gallery. Yeats’s long fascination with the circus began with childhood visits to fairs and small travelling circuses in Sligo, where he was brought up by his grandparents.

When, in 1887, at the age of sixteen, he joined his parents in Earl’s Court in London, he became a frequent visitor to the spectacular London circuses and related establishments. Post-impressionist artists were already using the circus, as a theme closely connected to the newly expanded world of recreation, by the time Jack Yeats became interested in it as a subject for his own work. The conflicting vistas of performers and audience echoed the new perspectives being found in modern art.

While many of Yeats’s early drawings and watercolours relate to famous circuses visited in England, the artist subsequently explored the relationship of the travelling circus to rural Ireland in particular. This exhibition contains both the early watercolours produced at the turn of the century and his later more experimental oils, such as ‘They Love Me’, where areas of deep impasto are juxtaposed with sections which are barely covered in thin washes of colour.

The works displayed also reveal his interest in the side-shows and entertainments of local fairs visited around the west of Ireland, ‘The Barrel Man’ and ‘The Maggie Man’. The equestrian theme can be seen throughout the exhibition, as in this painting ‘Double Jockey Act’, pictured left, of a daring horseback act.

His admiration for the performer’s horsemanship and courage also contributed to Yeats’s romantic depictions of jockeys and horsemen in the west of Ireland.

Yeats’s portrayal of circus performers emphasises their position as outsiders from society. In particular, Yeats was drawn to the clown, whose dominance of the strange world of the circus became a central theme.

He had a lifelong preoccupation with the famous Irishman, Johnny Patterson, (1840-89), The Singing Clown, who died violently as a result of injuries received at the hands of his audience. Patterson epitomised the success of the circus performer who, coming from humble origins, achieved great wealth and fame. But his chosen occupation contributed to a difficult and complicated personal life and to his untimely death.

The choice of subject matter, the masquerade and spectacle of the circus, is intrinsically connected to the manner in which Yeats painted, concerned with the creation of a world of fantasy and illusion. The works in the exhibition are beautifully lighted in an otherwise dark Yeats Museum, showing off all the luminosity of the paintings.

The exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of Jack B. Yeats’s death, and runs until 11 November, 2007 in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Above: Jack Butler Yeats.