[Vera Dokter]

When re-reading Yeats’ essay on Magic, the ‘vision’ that he describes  in the second part, evoked by a woman, includes the following scenario: “[a] man in black was perhaps a Fleming of the sixteenth century (…) He went in, and wishing to find out how far we had one vision among us, I kept silent when I saw a dead body lying upon the table within the door”. This vague description of a Flemish man dressed in black, going into a room with a dead body on a table reminded me a lot of Rembrandt’s painting “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp”, which can be seen below.

We can see here a man dressed in black, with a dead body on the table. However, there are some discrepancies between what the woman describes in her vision and what we can see in the painting.  For example, she says the man might be  Flemish, but Rembrandt and Dr. Tulp are both Dutch. Furthermore, the woman speaks of a sixteenth century man, but the painting is painted in 1632, making it a 17th century man. However, these differences are small and might even be called insignificant. What do you all think? Could it be that this painting was a big inspiration for the woman’s vision or is this taking it too far?

 

[Rob Doggett]

Wow. This is totally fascinating. I’ve never come across anyone who has made the connection between Yeats’s description and this painting. But this surely is the painting that he (or the woman) had in mind.  Vera, this might be a fun little project for you–see if you can find any critical commentary on Yeats’s “Magic” that draws a connection with the painting. Then, report back in this space. Thanks for this–I’m not sure what to say about the painting at this point, but it provides a new way of thinking about “Magic.”

[Author]

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