Exhibited

Dublin, Ireland, 1925.
London, United Kingdom, 1926.
Birmingham, United Kingdom, 1927.
Dublin, Ireland, 1945.
Leeds, United Kingdom, 1948.
London, United Kingdom, 1948.
American Retrospective, 1951-1952.
York, 1960.
Montreal, Canada, 1961(repro).
London, United Kingdom, 1963 (repro).
Massachusetts, 1965 (repro).
Dublin, Ireland 1966 (repro).
New York, 1971-1972 (color repro).
Birmingham, Alabama, 1980.

Literature

Thomas MacGreevy, Jack B Yeats: An Appreciation and an Interpretation, Dublin, Ireland, 1945 p. 27, plate 8.

Hilary Pyle, Jack B Yeats: A Biography, London, United Kingdom, 1970, p. 128.

Hilary Pyle, Jack B Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch Ltd., London 1992, p. 264 (illus.).

David Lloyd, 'Republics of Difference: Yeats, MacGreevy, Beckett', Field Day Review, 2005, p. 50.

Note

"Yeats used to explain that the 'breaker-out' is the man who signals to the crane manipulator where and when to lower the packages on to a boat - 'so as not to crush everyone to death'.
One of his greatest portraits of an ordinary man practising his profession, with the man of the dockyards assuming a universal importance and dignity as he raises his hand to the unseen crane manipulator. MacGreevy (op.cit) has described The Breaker out as 'timeless'; and the painting anticipates the more deliberately symbolic characters in the paintings of the 40's." (Hilary Pyle, Jack B Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Andre Deutsch Ltd., London 1992, p. 264).

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Lot 44

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