Jack B. Yeats won Ireland’s first Olympic medal when his oil painting Swimming – also known as The Liffey Swim – was awarded a silver medal in the painting section of the arts competition at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.

The work depicts the annual Liffey Swim, first held in 1920, presenting a composite interpretation of the race divided diagonally across the canvas: the right side showing the swimmers in the water, the left capturing the spectators on Bachelors Walk. The painting marks the beginning of Yeats’ engagement with Expressionism and his move away from characteristic strong line and flat colour.

As a young man, Yeats had worked in London for sporting journals and sport had inspired much of his earlier work; the Liffey Swim returned him to those themes. He entered two works in the Paris competition.

One of the most celebrated artists in Irish history, Yeats was the brother of the poet W.B. Yeats and one of the defining voices of Irish art in the twentieth century.