John Butler Yeats
Encyclopedia
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
artist and the father of William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, Lily Yeats, Lollie Yeats and Jack B. Yeats. He is probably best known for his portrait of the young William Butler Yeats which is one of a number of his portraits of Irishmen and women in the Yeats museum in the National Gallery of Ireland
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland houses the Irish national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on Clare Street. It was founded in 1854 and opened its doors ten years later...
. His portrait of John O'Leary
John O'Leary (poet)
John O'Leary was an Irish separatist and a leading Fenian. He studied both law and medicine but did not take a degree and for his involvement in the Irish Republican Brotherhood he was imprisoned in England during the nineteenth century.-Early life:Born in the town of Tipperary, County Tipperary,...
(1904) is considered to be his masterpiece (Raymond Keaveney 2002).
Yeats was born in Lawrencetown
Lawrencetown, County Down
Lawrencetown or Laurencetown is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits on the River Bann, along the main road between the towns of Banbridge and Portadown. It is within the parish of Tullylish and covers the townlands of Knocknagore and Drumnascamph. In the 2001 Census it had a...
, townland of Tullylish
Tullylish
Tullylish is a small village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits on the River Bann, along the main road between the towns of Banbridge and Portadown. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 105 people...
, County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
. Educated in Trinity College Dublin and a member of the University Philosophical Society John Butler Yeats began his career as a lawyer and devilled briefly with Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt
Isaac Butt Q.C. M.P. was an Irish barrister, politician, Member of Parliament , and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home...
before he took up painting in 1867 and studied at Heatherley's Art School. There are few records of his sales, so there is no catalogue of his work in private collections. It is possible that some of his early work may have been destroyed by fire in WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It is clear that he had no trouble getting commissions as his sketches and oils are found in private homes in Ireland, England and America. His later portraits show great sensitivity to the sitter. However, he was a poor businessman and was never financially secure. He moved house frequently and shifted several times between England and Ireland. At the age of 69 he moved to New York, where he was friendly with members of the Ashcan School
Ashcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States during the early twentieth century, best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York's poorer neighborhoods. The movement grew out of a group...
of painters. He is buried in Chestertown Rural Cemetery in Chestertown, New York.
Family
Yeats married Susan PollexfenSusan Pollexfen
Susan Mary Yeats of Sligo, Ireland, was the wife of John Butler Yeats and the mother of William Butler Yeats, Jack Butler Yeats, Elizabeth Yeats and Lily Yeats....
(1841- 1900) September 10, 1863 at St.John's Church, Sligo: they had six children:
- William Butler (June 13, 1865 - January 28, 1939)William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
- Susan Mary (Lily) (August 25, 1866 - January 5, 1949)
- Elizabeth Corbet (Lolly)(March 11, 1868– January 16, 1940)Elizabeth YeatsElizabeth Corbett Yeats , known as Lolly, was born at 23 Fitzroy Road, London. She was the daughter of the Irish artist John Butler Yeats and sister of W. B., Jack and Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats. She trained and worked as an art teacher and was a member of William Morris's circle in London before her...
- Robert Corbet Yeats March 27, 1870- March 3, 1873
- Jack Butler (August 29, 1871 - March 28, 1957)Jack Butler YeatsJohn "Jack" Butler Yeats was an Irish artist. His early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906. His early pictures are simple lyrical depictions of landscapes and figures, predominantly from the west of Ireland—especially of his boyhood home of...
- Jane Grace Yeats (August 29, 1875 - June 6, 1876)
External links and references
- Douglas N. Archibald (1974), John Butler Yeats Bucknell University Press-Irish Writers Series.
- Martyn Anglesea (2003), Yeats, John Butler in Brian Lalor (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillian. ISBN 0-7171-3000-2.
- Bruce Arnold (1977), Irish Art, a concise history. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20148-X
- Robert Gordon (1978), John Butler Yeats and John Sloan the records of a friendship The Dolmen Press New Yeats Papers XIV Dublin.
- Declan J Foley (2009), editor, Letters of John Butler Yeats to his son Jack B. Yeats Lilliput Press Dublin ISBN 978 1 84351 155 7.
- Joseph Hone, editor (1944), J.B.Yeats Letters to his son W. B. Yeats and Others 1969-1922, Faber and Faber, 1 & 2 eds., republished Martin Secker and Waburg Ltd, (1983). Abridged and with an Introduction by John McGahern.(London): Faber, (1999).
- Raymond Keaveney (2002), National Gallery of Ireland, Essential Guide. London: Scala. ISBN 1-85759-267-0.
- Biographical note in the Princess Grace Irish Library
- Janis Londraville, editor, (2003) Prodigal Father Revisited: Artists and writers in the World of John Butler Yeats, Locust Hill Press, includes papers from first John Butler Yeats Seminar, Chestertown 2001.
- William M. Murphy (1978), Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yeats, 1839-1922 published by Cornell University Press. Paperback 1979, and reprinted in paperback with some new material in 2001 by Syracuse University Press.
- William M. Murphy (1995), Family Secrets: William Butler Yeats and His Relatives Syracuse University Press, 1995.
- William M. Murphy (1971), The Yeats Family and the Pollexfens of Sligo (Dublin:Dolmen).
- William M. Murphy,; Fintan Cullen, eds.(1987), The Drawings of John Butler Yeats (Albany, New York: Albany Institute of History and Art, and Union College, Departments of Art and English).
- William M Murphy (1995), Family Secrets William Butler Yeats and His Relatives Syracuse UP.
- Robert Gordon (1978), John Butler Yeats and John Sloan: The Record of a FriendshipThe Dolmen Press New Yeats Papers XIV Dublin.
- Lennox Robinson, editor (1920), Further Letters of John Butler Yeats: Selected by Lennox Robinson, The Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.
- Yeats John Butler (1918),Essays Irish and American, (with an appreciation by AE)Talbot Press Dublin/T Fisher Unwin London. Early Memories: Some Chapters of Autobiography (1923) The Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum County Dublin.
- Passages From The Letters of John Butler Yeats: Selected by Ezra Pound (1917). The Cuala Press Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin
- James White (1972), John Butler Yeats and The Irish Renaissance with pictures from the collection of Michael Butler Yeats and from The National Gallery of Ireland The Dolmen Press Dublin.
Visit the birthplace of John Butler Yeats at Tullylish: Ulster History Society - John Butler Yeats