I love Margaret Clarke’s painting “Columbine Rests” (ca. 1923/1924) featuring a tired ballerina being serenaded by Pierrot. (It’s also known as “Pierrot and Columbine”). It is very apt that Thomas McGreevy (as he was then known, without the additional “a”) should be the model for Pierrot, next to the ethereal Julia O’Brien as Columbine, given his penchant for dance and the body at the time, and his subsequent non-official advisory role in the Abbey Theatre Ballets. I’m looking forward to teasing this out a little further in my short paper, entitled “Thomas MacGreevy and the Abbey Theatre Ballets” as part of a three person panel on “Theatre Arts” in esteemed company at the 2025 Conference of the International Yeats Society at Trinity College on October 30th at 4pm. Here is a link to the full provisional programme of “W.B. YEATS: DUBLINER” in case you could be tempted!
My recent book on Lucia Joyce and the Abbey Theatre Ballets is available for sale here.