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.
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'John M. Synge, In Wicklow, West Kerry and Connemara'
- Price Realised: 450
- Sale: 12 June 2005
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'George A. Birmingham, Irishmen All'
- Price Realised: 450
- Sale: 18 November 2003
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'THE BALLAD SINGER'
- Price Realised: 440
- Sale: 17 October 2022
- handcoloured Cuala Press print
- 8½ x 6½in. (21.59 x 16.51cm)
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'DUBLIN QUAYS'
- Price Realised: 440
- Sale: 17 July 2017
- hand-coloured print
- 7Ό x 5Όin. (18.42 x 13.34cm)
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'THE MOUNTAIN FARM and THE VILLAGE (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 440
- Sale: 29 February 2016
- hand-coloured Cuala Press prints; (2)
- 3½ x 13½in. (8.89 x 34.29cm)
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'Robert Lynd, Rambles in Ireland, illustrated by Jack B. Yeats'
- Price Realised: 440
- Sale: 26 May 2007
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'SLIGO RACES [A PAIR]'
- Price Realised: 432
- Sale: 26 June 2000
- handcoloured Cuala Press woodcuts
- 11 by 42cm., 4.5 by 16.5in.
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'THE CRIB'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 13 December 2023
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print; (unframed)
- 4 x 5½in. (10.16 x 13.97cm)
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'THE NEW BALLAD SINGER'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 18 October 2021
- handcoloured Cuala print
- 4Ύ x 6in. (12.07 x 15.24cm)
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'THE NEW BALLAD SINGER and THE JOCKEY (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 05 October 2020
- handcoloured Cuala Press prints; (mounted but unframed)
- 4Ύ x 6Όin. (12.07 x 15.88cm)
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'STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE, NOR IRON BARS A CAGE, 1897 (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 09 July 2018
- lithograph printed in colour; (2)
- 5½ x 14in. (13.97 x 35.56cm)
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'THE MOUNTAIN FARM'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 23 October 2017
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 3½ x 13½in. (8.89 x 34.29cm)
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'JACK B. YEATS: A CATALOGUE RAISONNΙ OF THE OIL PAINTINGS by HILARY PYLE HRHA'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 30 May 2016
- 11Ό x 9in. (28.58 x 22.86cm)
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'Seumas O'Kelly, The Weaver's Grave, illustrated by Jack B. Yeats'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 27 May 2006
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'A SHOP IN SAILOR TOWN'
- Price Realised: 420
- Sale: 27 May 2006
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print, late edition
- 14 by 29cm., 5.5 by 11.5in.
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'CHRISTMAS CARD [COTTAGE IN A LANDSCAPE]'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 13 December 2023
- lithograph; (unframed)
- 3Ό x 5Όin. (8.26 x 13.34cm)
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'TRAVELLING MAN ON A COUNTRY ROAD'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 11 March 2015
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 3½ x 13½in. (8.89 x 34.29cm)
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'ILLUSTRATED ENVELOPE FROM JACK B. YEATS TO REV. T.A. HARVEY, 1906'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 01 October 2012
- ink with watercolour on blue tinted paper
- 3.75 by 4.75in., 10 by 12cm.
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'LETTER TO RICHARD PEARSALL ESQ., 1947'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 12 March 2012
- ink; on Yeats' headed paper [18 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin]; letter (1); envelope; (1); (framed as one)
- 19.05 by 24.13cm., 7.5 by 9.5in.
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'A LITTLE BOOK OF DRAWINGS BY JACK B. YEATS GATHERED FROM 'A BROADSIDE''
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 11 December 2011
- ; 1971; (no. 89 from an edition of 200 hand-coloured copies)
- 22 by 15cm., 8.5 by 6in.
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'"COME ON GENTLEMENT FATHER WON'T MIND", 1897'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 30 November 2009
- lithograph printed in colour
- 46 by 34cm., 18 by 13.5in.
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'THE TURFCUTTER'S DONKEY, BY PATRICIA LYNCH'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 17 May 2008
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'THE STRAND RACES: THE FINISH'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 17 May 2008
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 12 by 43cm., 4.75 by 16.7 5in.
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'FAIR DAY'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 09 December 2006
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print
- 13 by 18cm., 5 by 7in.
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'Broadside Characters'
- Price Realised: 400
- Sale: 17 February 2004
- 0 by 0cm., by in.
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'TWO AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT LETTERS TO THE VANSTON FAMILY'
- Price Realised: 390
- Sale: 10 December 2005
- 0 by 0cm., by in.
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'THE CONNAUGHT TOAST'
- Price Realised: 380
- Sale: 05 October 2020
- handcoloured Cuala Press print; (mounted but unframed)
- 3 x 4in. (7.62 x 10.16cm)
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'THE WREN BOYS'
- Price Realised: 380
- Sale: 23 October 2017
- hand-coloured Cuala press print
- 4Ύ x 3½in. (12.07 x 8.89cm)