Jack B. Yeats: Ireland's Painter

JACK B. YEATS
The Card Players, 1908
watercolor and pencil on paperboard
Collection of Brian P. Burns

The Card Players

A critic of 1903 found that Yeats's stalwart peasants are men with grim determination and a wild, reckless humour, and in The Card Players the viewer finds four such characters. The warm tones of the men and their surrounding village contrast sharply with the late afternoon sky, emphasizing their proximity to the earth. From the smug confidence of the smoking player, to the sneaky, crouching
uncertainty of the player with his back to the viewer, each man displays an individually characterized assurance that his is indeed the winning hand. The good-humoured nature of the game and its
players is conveyed through the subtle suggestion of an up-turned chin or quiet smiles imaged upon each face.