Draperies and Reveries: W.B. Yeats and the Aesthetic of the Background

There are many traces of W.B. Yeats’s interest in pictorial scenography, from his stage directions to his way of writing about performance more generally, with much showing how curtains, tapestries, panels, screens, backcloths and draperies became integral to his conception of performance and the visual compositions he wanted to create. This article excavates a neglected reflection on backcloths and the aesthetics of theatre textiles in Yeats’s letters and writings about the theatre. It argues that the background constituted for Yeats a genuine aesthetic and practical problem, which he addressed through observation and conversation. Through the day-to-day concerns and interests expressed in Yeats’s correspondence, some general principles outlined in his journalism and essays, and the few surviving remnants of his sketching practice, I trace some entanglements between his thinking about decorative scenery and his impressions of Edward Gordon Craig’s first productions in London in the early 1900s—productions that were characterized by their innovative use of large backcloths and fabrics. I conclude by tracing elements of Yeats’s early reflection on backgrounds in his later visualizations of stage scenery, drawing attention to similarities between some of Yeats’s scenographic sketches—which are few and far between, but provide tantalizing insights into the visual reflection that nourished his playwriting—and Craig’s own sketching practice.