Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Mexican Joe Pen, Indian ink and watercolour,...

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
Mexican Joe
Pen, Indian ink and watercolour, 20.3 x 24.5cm (8 x 10'')
Signed

Provenance: With Waddington Galleries, London, where purchased by a private collector...

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
Mexican Joe
Pen, Indian ink and watercolour, 20.3 x 24.5cm (8 x 10'')
Signed

Provenance: With Waddington Galleries, London, where purchased by a private collector in 1961; Waddington Galleries, London, label verso; Sale: Sotheby’s London, 21st October, 2015, Lot 31; Private collection.

Exhibited: London, Waddington Galleries, Jack B. Yeats: Early Watercolours; 6-29 April 1961, no.2, illustrated

Literature: Bruce Arnold, Jack Yeats, Yale University Press, London, 1998, illustrated p.54, fig.56;

This early pen and ink drawing by Jack B Yeats depicts an act seen by the artist at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show which was held in Earls Court near to the Yeats family home in London in the summer of 1887. Hilary Pyle recounts that Jack ‘knew the format of the action so well, that when gun shots sounded in the night, and were heard by the inhabitants of Eardley Crescent [the Yeats’s home] he could recount the events to his own family, matching his narrative exactly with subsequent shots as they sounded’. Jack remained a huge fan of such live events, especially the circus, in which different nationalities and races came together to undertake daring actions that amused and astonished audiences.

Buffalo Bill Cody’s spectacular included a large cast of native Americans, cowboys and hundreds of horses and buffalos. Mexican Joe performed one of the celebrated equestrian acts. His real name was José Barrera and he was reputedly born in Monterray in Mexico in 1876. In Yeats’s drawing he has just completed or is about to embark on his routine. He gazes out at the viewer, holding his large sombrero hat in one hand and the reins of his steed in the other. His large moustache and long hair in addition to his flamboyant attire mark him out as exotic. The horse holds its head straight and maintains a dignified pose in keeping with its rider’s evident poise and control. Dark washes in the background indicate the outline of the crowd and the interior structure of the stadium which was lit by electricity, an unusual innovation for that time. The drawing relates to a later watercolour, The Mexican of the Circus, 1902, which shows Joe wearing his sombrero while holding on fast to his horse as it races in the circus ring.

Dr Róisín Kennedy, August 2026