A bound volume with a manuscript annotation on the spine which reads ‘Jack B. Yeats / National Loan Exhibition / 1945’. The volume contains photographic prints showing some of the 179 Yeats’s paintings on display at the exhibition. The exhibition was held at the National College of Art in Dublin in June and July 1945. Fr. Senan Moynihan played a significant role in organising the exhibition. Printed extracts from a catalogue are extant in the volume which include information on painting titles, dimensions, and provenance. The volume also includes some related clippings re Yeats’s artistic output, a Christmas card from the Cuala Press, letters from Yeats to Fr. Senan, and a ink-sketch signed by the artist. The letters date from 1941 to 1946. Several of Yeats’s paintings displayed in the exhibition including ‘The Funeral of Harry Boland’ (1922) and ‘Communicating with Prisoners’ (1924) were in the possession of Fr. Senan at the time of the National Loan Exhibition.
The file also includes loose correspondence relating to the event including many copy letters from Fr. Senan, mostly dating to 1944. Some original letters to Fr. Senan are also extant in the file. The correspondents include Jack B. Yeats, C.P. Curran, Ernie O’Malley, D.L. Kelleher, P.J. Little, Monsignor Pádraig de Brún, Richard J. King, James Sleator, Victor Waddington, R.R. Figgis, Laurence Campbell, Josephine McNeill, and Séamus Ó Braonáin. The file also contains several typescript lists of paintings by Yeats which were exhibited.
