As part of our My Pick series we asked Heike Thiele, Assistant Curator at The Model, to choose her favorite work and tell us why.

‘A Sunday Morning in Sligo’ is a watercolour that depicts a young man jumping from a mud bank to a pool below. A friend watches him from the pool as the young man is caught mid-jump, frozen in a fetal position. Onlookers watch the fun as young men splash about in the water, climb the mud bank and plummet once more to the water below.

I like this watercolour in particular because it has an immediacy that some of J.B. Yeats paintings sometimes lack as often they seem to be set on a stage.

‘Sunday Morning’ seems of vital importance, like it’s an experience from his life. The watercolor feels as though it is autobiographical. Maybe J.B. Yeats was swimming himself in the water watching another lad jump in and this is a memory.

I also like that the water is not the sea but that it’s a bit mucky. I find that it feels like a real summer experience and that it’s just gorgeous. I also like that it’s not fully formed and has very few visible outlines. It’s freer than other J.B. Yeats work. It’s really quite painterly and it’s less of a drawing.

‘A Sunday morning in Sligo,’(1898) by Jack B. Yeats is currently featured in “Lives” a Model exhibition in The Niland Gallery. “Lives” will be on display until 01. Oct. 2017.