Deathbed drawing by Yeats to be auctioned

THE LAST artwork – created on his deathbed – by one of Ireland’s best-known artists, Jack B Yeats, is to be sold at auction in London next month.

The pen-and-ink drawing titled Roundabout Ponieshas an estimated value of £1,500-£2,000. It will be sold by fine art auctioneers Bonhams who said the sketch had been drawn by Yeats in the Portobello nursing home in Dublin two days before he died there on March 28th, 1957.

He presented the sketch, which measures just over 5x4in, to the matron, Teresa O’Sullivan with whom he was friendly. She has also since died and her family has consigned it for sale.

Art historian Hilary Pyle, an expert on Yeats, has described it as “his last drawing, a tiny gay swirling sketch of two roundabout ponies on writing paper”.

Penny Day, head of Irish art at Bonhams, said: “This work, although slight, is of great interest as it is the final work he produced. This little gem exhibits the unique artistic vitality he had right to the end.” She said “the fact that he presented it as a gift to someone who had looked after him during his last days adds additional poignancy”.

Bonhams will auction the sketch on February 9th.

Because oil paintings by Jack B Yeats can sell for hundreds of thousands of euro, his sketches are much sought after by entry-level collectors. In December, Adams in Dublin sold a series of small sketches of scenes in Co Galway; many achieved three times their estimates.

The highest price ever paid for a painting by Yeats was £1.2 million for The Wild Onesat Sotheby's, London, in 1999.