The National Gallery of Ireland presents ‘Masquerade and Spectacle’ - The Circus and the Travelling Fair in the work of Jack B.Yeats, on view through 11 November 2007. Masquerade and Spectacle commemorates the 50th anniversary of the death of Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957); one of Ireland ’s most loved artists. Featuring 26 paintings and watercolours drawn mainly from private collections, the exhibition focuses on the theme of the circus and the travelling fair in the work of the artist. It will show how certain motifs such as the clown and the circus horse recurred in Yeats’s work over many decades in his compositions: Crystal Palace (1903); Double Jockey Act (1916), They Come, They Come (1936), and This Grand Conversation was Under the Rose (1943). From his earliest years Yeats had a fascination with such theatrical spectacles as is evident from his sketchbooks, examples of which will also be on view.