Description
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
53cm x 83cm (25in x 33in)
Footnote
Exhibited: Whitechapel Gallery 1901, no.296
Pyms Gallery London, William James Yule 1983, noXII, illustrated in colour
Note: This striking portrait of three Spanish children, was probably painted by Yule around the time of his trip to Spain in the early 1890s. The impressionistic brushstrokes capture a sense of the sitters' spirits and personalities beyond a formal likeness. Using the richly suggested texture and volume of the sitter's clothes; the balanced light and shadow of the background and pleasing tonal pinks, red, creams and browns throughout, Yule creates a harmonious, balanced composition. The painting fully reveals what James Caw saw in Yule's works, the 'certain shy beauty which gives them a quite distinctive place,' and is indicative of the way Yule envisaged the world, 'at once exquisite and synthetic, in its large contours as well as in its delicate nuances.'
Yule died tragically young, just as he was reaching his maturity as a painter, at the age of 33. Many friends and colleagues of his were aware of his talent and lamented the loss to the artistic community of such potential, never to be fully realised. On viewing one of Yule's paintings, D.S. MacColl wrote in The Spectator, 'I have seen nothing new that has given me so much pleasure or seemed to me to bear so much promise for the future.'
The artist's father, as well as friends and colleagues, continued to exhibit and promote his work after his death. Beyond this there are few records of the details of his life; the remaining paintings are allowed to speak for themselves. He was, however, a prolific sketcher, so there is a fascinating record of his life in Edinburgh captured in that manner; the routes he walked, music hall stars he was entertained by and the masterpieces he studied at the National Galleries of Scotland.