Jack Butler Yeats
Yeats was born in London on 29 August 1871, son of the portrait painter and illustrator John Butler Yeats and brother to the poet William Butler Yeats. He resided with his maternal grandparents for much of his childhood at their home just outside of Sligo. At sixteen he returned to London and began to attend classes at South Kensington School of Art, and later attended Chiswick Art School, West London Art School and Westminster School of Art. Yeats started work as an illustrator in the late 1880s, providing drawings to The Vegetarian, the Daily Graphic, the Illustrated London News and many other publications in England, Ireland and America. Irish subject-matter was a major component of the artists oeuvre even at this early stage in his career, and he returned to the country regularly from London. His Irish works were very well-received, and in 1900 he mounted an exhibition entitled Sketches of Life in the West of Ireland and Elsewhere at the Leinster Hall. The success of the event prompted Yeats to exhibit a similar selection of works the following year at Walkers Galleries, 9 Merrion Row, Dublin before crowds of visitors. Further exhibitions of West of Ireland subjects followed and in 1912 he published a volume of forty drawings and paintings entitled Life in the West of Ireland. In 1910 Yeats moved from his home in Devon to reside at Red Ford House, Greystones, Co Wicklow. He began to submit works to the RHA annual exhibition and was elected RHA in 1916. He also joined the United Arts Club and later served on the committee. Along with Paul Henry and Clare Marsh, Yeats was one of the first members of the Society of Dublin Painters, which was founded in 1920. In that same year Sir John Lavery appointed him as one of the first ten members of the newly-formed Belfast Art Society. The 1920s also marked a dramatic change in the artists style as he turned away from the making of prints to focus instead on painting. In 1924 The Liffey Swim (NGI) won Yeats a silver medal at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Throughout the 1930s and 40s Yeats participated in numerous exhibitions internationally, including the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition in 1933. In 1939 he was appointed governor of the National Gallery of Ireland. The 1940s were very productive years for the artist, he is thought to have painted more than one hundred pictures a year at this period. He also exhibited extensively in Ireland and overseas. At the end of the decade he began to retire to Portobello House nursing home where he died in March 1957. Exhibitions followed his death in numerous venues throughout Ireland. In 1999 the Yeats Museum, a permanent collection of works by the artist, opened in the National Gallery of Ireland. His works can be found in many prominent institutions, including the Musee dArt Moderne, Paris and the Museum of Art, Washington DC.
-
'SKETCH OF A MAN'S HEAD, 1899'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 25 November 2019
- pencil
- 5 x 3½in. (12.70 x 8.89cm)
-
'TWO ILLUSTRATED LETTERS WITH STENCILLING FROM JACK BUTLER YEATS TO THOMAS ARNOLD HARVEY, 10 JANUARY 1904 (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 01 October 2012
- ink on buff-coloured paper with stencil and watercolour; (2)
- 10.25 by 7.5in., 26 by 19cm.
-
'INTERIOR WITH LOOM'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- watercolour over pencil (no.24)
- 7 by 9cm., 2.75 by 3.5in.
-
'MAN AT A LOOM'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- watercolour over pencil (no.28)
- 7 by 9cm., 2.75 by 3.5in.
-
'AN OLD SLAVE, c.1911 AND TWO OTHERS'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- Cuala Press handcoloured print (framed)
- 18 by 13cm., 7 by 5in.
-
'THE STRAND RACES: THE START AND THE FINISH (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- hand coloured Cuala Press prints (framed uniformly)
- 13 by 43cm., 5 by 17in.
-
'DUBLIN QUAYS and THE WREN BOYS (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 09 December 2006
- hand-coloured Cuala Press prints
- 20 by 14cm., 7.75 by 5.5in.
-
'LA LA NOO, a play in two acts by Jack B. Yeats'
- Price Realised: 700
- Sale: 26 April 2005
- 0 by 0cm., by in.
-
'JACK B. YEATS: A CATALOGUE RAISONNΙ OF THE OIL PAINTINGS
by HILARY PYLE HRHA' - Price Realised: 680
- Sale: 26 May 2014
- 11.25 by 9in., 28.125 by 22.5cm.
-
'ILLUSTRATED ENVELOPE FROM JACK B. YEATS TO REV. T.A. HARVEY, SHOWING CHART OF PIRATE ISLAND, 1904'
- Price Realised: 680
- Sale: 01 October 2012
- pen and ink with watercolour
- 4.75 by 3.75in., 12 by 10cm.
-
'LIFE IN THE WEST OF IRELAND, 1912'
- Price Realised: 660
- Sale: 30 September 2013
- first edition book
- by in., 0 by 0cm.
-
'ILLUSTRATED HALF LETTER FROM JACK BUTLER YEATS TO THOMAS ARNOLD HARVEY'
- Price Realised: 660
- Sale: 01 October 2012
- ink
- 7 by 4.5in., 18 by 11cm.
-
'ILLUSTRATED LETTER FROM JACK BUTLER YEATS TO THOMAS ARNOLD HARVEY, 16 NOVEMBER 1904'
- Price Realised: 660
- Sale: 01 October 2012
- ink on blue tinted paper
- 7 by 9in., 18 by 23cm.
-
'THE STRAND RACES THE FINISH'
- Price Realised: 650
- Sale: 14 March 2011
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 14 by 43cm., 5.5 by 17in.
-
'G. ROWNEY & CO. RINGBOUND CARTRIDGE PAPER SKETCHBOOK, ROUND TOWER, PIGEON, GORT, CO. GALWAY 1898'
- Price Realised: 650
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- 9 by 13cm., 3.5 by 5in.
-
'EVENING, c.1906'
- Price Realised: 650
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- handcoloured Cuala Press print (framed)
- 20 by 30cm., 8 by 11.7 5in.
-
'STONEWALL ARCHWAY AND HEADSTONES'
- Price Realised: 650
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- watercolour over pencil (no.35)
- 9 by 13cm., 3.5 by 5in.
-
'EVENING and THE POSTCAR, 1907-1908 AND OTHERS'
- Price Realised: 650
- Sale: 31 May 2010
- handcoloured Cuala Press prints (2); print (1); coloured plate (1) (all unframed)
- 30 by 39cm., 12 by 15.2 5in.
-
'THOMAS MACGREEVY, 'JACK B. YEATS: AN APPRECIATION AND AN INTERPRETATION' with HANDWRITTEN LETTER FR'
- Price Realised: 650
- Sale: 18 May 2009
-
'A GALWAY HOOKER'
- Price Realised: 620
- Sale: 09 December 2006
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 15 by 25cm., 5.75 by 10in.
-
'THE BOXER, 1901'
- Price Realised: 600
- Sale: 01 October 2012
- pen and ink with gouache on [post] card
- 5.5 by 3.5in., 14 by 9cm.
-
'DETAIL OF A LOOM'
- Price Realised: 600
- Sale: 04 October 2010
- watercolour over pencil (no.27)
- 7 by 9cm., 2.75 by 3.5in.
-
'THE VILLAGE'
- Price Realised: 600
- Sale: 27 May 2006
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 9 by 34cm., 3.5 by 13.5in.
-
'THE WREN BOYS, CRICA 1904'
- Price Realised: 600
- Sale: 27 May 2006
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 13 by 10cm., 5 by 4in.
-
'H. L. Swinburne, The Royal Navy'
- Price Realised: 600
- Sale: 19 November 2002
- 0 by 0cm., by in.
-
'THE CAMELOPARD and FAIR DAY [A PAIR]'
- Price Realised: 580
- Sale: 13 December 2023
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print; (2)
- 8 x 5in. (20.32 x 12.70cm)
-
'THE MOUNTAIN FARM'
- Price Realised: 580
- Sale: 28 March 2022
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 3½ x 13½in. (8.89 x 34.29cm)
-
'THE STRAND RACES: THE START AND THE FINISH (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 580
- Sale: 14 June 2021
- handcoloured Cuala press print; (2)
- 5 x 16Ύin. (12.70 x 42.55cm)