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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'A LITTLE BOOK OF DRAWINGS'
- Price Realised: 160
- Sale: 13 December 2023
- book of Cuala Press prints from an edition of 1000; (uncoloured)
- 8Ό x 5½in. (20.96 x 13.97cm)
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'REGATTA and THE OLD HUNTSMAN (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 160
- Sale: 10 July 2023
- print; (2)
- 5Ύ x 4in. (14.61 x 10.16cm)
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'DUBLIN QUAYS, 1911'
- Price Realised: 160
- Sale: 03 April 2023
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print; (unframed)
- 7 x 5in. (17.78 x 12.70cm)
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'A SHOP IN SAILOR TOWN'
- Price Realised: 160
- Sale: 03 April 2023
- hand-coloured Cuala Press print; (unframed)
- 5½ x 8in. (13.97 x 20.32cm)
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'THE PLAYBOY'
- Price Realised: 160
- Sale: 05 October 2020
- handcoloured Cuala Press print; (mounted but unframed)
- 7 x 5in. (17.78 x 12.70cm)
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'THE NEW BALLAD SINGER'
- Price Realised: 150
- Sale: 01 July 2024
- hand-coloured Cuala press print
- 4Ύ x 6Όin. (12.07 x 15.88cm)
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'CARRYING SEAWEED FOR KELP and AN ISLAND HORSEMAN (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 150
- Sale: 01 July 2024
- print; (2)
- 4½ x 3½in. (11.43 x 8.89cm)
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'CHRISTMAS CORRESPONDENCE FROM JACK B. YEATS TO PEARSALL FAMILY [SUSSEX], 1948'
- Price Realised: 150
- Sale: 09 December 2012
- ink on [18 Fitzwilliam Sq., Dublin] headed paper; (1 letter; 1 stamp addressed envelope)
- 5.5 by 8.25in., 13.97 by 20.955cm.
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'COMHTHROM AN LAE and A CRADLE SONG (A PAIR)'
- Price Realised: 150
- Sale: 13 December 2010
- handcoloured Cuala Press print (2)
- 17 by 11cm., 6.75 by 4.5in.
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'IRISHMEN ALL by GEORGE A. BIRMINGHAM'
- Price Realised: 150
- Sale: 30 November 2009
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'A Broadside, No.1 Third Year, June 1910'
- Price Realised: 150
- Sale: 27 May 2006
- hand-coloured Cuala Press broadside
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'Four posthumous exhibition catalogues, 1961-1971'
- Price Realised: 140
- Sale: 09 December 2006
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'THE FIDDLER'
- Price Realised: 127
- Sale: 26 June 2000
- woodcut, uncoloured
- 18 by 14cm., 7 by 5.5in.
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'CATALOGUES [SET OF SEVEN]'
- Price Realised: 120
- Sale: 13 December 2023
- books; (7)
- 11½ x 12½in. (29.21 x 31Ύcm)
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'THE SIDE CAR'
- Price Realised: 120
- Sale: 05 October 2020
- handcoloured Cuala Press print; (mounted but unframed)
- 4 x 6½in. (10.16 x 16.51cm)
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'IN SAND, A CENTENARY GATHERING & OIL PAINTINGS, EARLY DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS [SET OF THREE]'
- Price Realised: 100
- Sale: 13 December 2023
- books; (3)
- 9 x 6½in. (22.86 x 16.51cm)
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'GLORY O! (1937), FAMINE SONG (1935), and ONE OTHER WORK'
- Price Realised: 100
- Sale: 15 March 2010
- coloured prints; (3) (framed)
- 8 by 13cm., 3.25 by 5in.
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'A BROADSIDE, February 1911'
- Price Realised: 100
- Sale: 12 June 2005
- single sheet (folded) of letterpress with three black and wh
- 28 by 19cm., 11 by 7.5in.
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'Frank O'Connor (trans.), A Lament for Art O'Leary'
- Price Realised: 100
- Sale: 17 September 2002
- 0 by 0cm., by in.
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'BEFORE THE START'
- Price Realised: 95
- Sale: 01 July 2024
- 15Ό x 21Ύin. (38.74 x 55Όcm)
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'THE ARAN ISLANDS by J.M. Synge'
- Price Realised: 95
- Sale: 09 December 2018
- hard back; first USA edition, 1911
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'FOLIO OF SIXTEEN PRINTS'
- Price Realised: 63
- Sale: 17 December 2000
- early b&w plates tipped in on individual sheets
- 24 by 17cm., 9.5 by 6.75in.
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'NATIONAL LOAN EXHIBITION, JUNE-JULY 1945'
- Price Realised: 60
- Sale: 13 December 2023
- catalogue
- 8½ x 5.45in. (21.59 x 13.84cm)
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'THE STREAMS OF BUNCLODY and SONG FOR THE CLATTER BONES, 1935 and THREE OTHER WORKS'
- Price Realised: 60
- Sale: 15 March 2010
- coloured prints; (5) (framed)
- 13 by 10cm., 5 by 4in.