John Butler Yeats (16 March 1839 – 3 February 1922) was an Irish artist and the father of W. B. Yeats, Lily Yeats, Elizabeth Corbett "Lolly" Yeats and

Jack Butler Yeats Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother. Butler's early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906. His early pict ...

. The

National Gallery of Ireland The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the 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 o ...

holds a number of his portraits in oil and works on paper, including one of his portraits of his son William, painted in 1900. His portrait of John O'Leary (1904) is considered his masterpiece (Raymond Keaveney 2002).

Career

Yeats was born in Lawrencetown, townland of Tullylish,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

. His parents were William Butler Yeats (1806–1862) and Jane Grace Corbert; John Butler Yeats was the eldest of nine children. Educated in

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, and a member of the

University Philosophical Society The University Philosophical Society (UPS; ), commonly known as The Phil, is a student paper-reading and debating society in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1683 it is the oldest student, collegial and paper-reading society in ...

, John Butler Yeats began his career as a lawyer and devilled briefly with

Isaac Butt Isaac Butt (6 September 1813 – 5 May 1879) was an Irish barrister, editor, politician, Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, economist and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parti ...

before he took up painting in 1867 and studied at the

Heatherley School of Fine Art The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London. The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the 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

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. 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. In 1907, at the age of 68, he travelled to New York aboard the '','' with his daughter Lily, and never returned to Ireland. In October 1909 he moved into his final home, a boarding house run by the Petitpas sisters which was located at 317 West Twenty-Ninth Street. In New York, he was friendly with members of the

Ashcan School The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the late 19th-early 20th century that produced works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods. ...

of painters. He died in the boarding house on 3 February 1922. Edmund Quinn made a death mask which is now in the collection of the Yeats Society in Sligo. John Butler Yeats is buried in Chestertown Rural Cemetery in

Chestertown, New York Chestertown is a hamlet of the Town of Chester, in Warren County, New York, United States. It is located by the junction of Route 8 and U.S. Route 9, in the Adirondack Mountains. The population was 677 at the 2010 census, which lists the communi ...

, next to his friend, Jeanne Robert Foster.

Family

Yeats married Susan Pollexfen (13 July 1841 – 3 January 1900) on 10 September 1863 at St. John's Church, Sligo. Susan Yeats was dismayed when her husband abandoned the study of law to become an artist. Susan is described as a "shadowy figure" who went "quietly, pitifully, mad".''The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays'', Guy Davenport, p.327
/ref> John and Susan had six children: William Butler Yeats; Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats; Elizabeth Corbett "Lolly" Yeats; Robert Corbet Yeats;

; and Jane Grace Yeats.

Gallery

William Butler Yeats by John Butler Yeats 1900.jpg, ''Portrait of W. B. Yeats'' (1900) File:John Butler Yeats, by John Butler Yeats.jpg, ''Self-portrait'' (1919) File:Constance Markiewicz by John Butler Yeats.jpg, ''Portrait of Countess

Constance Markievicz Constance Georgine Markievicz ( pl, Markiewicz ; ' Gore-Booth; 4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927), also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish politician, revolutionary, Irish nationalism, nationalist, suffragist, soc ...

'' (before 1922); an Irish politician, revolutionary nationalist and

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

; pencil drawing

References

Sources

* 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 & Macmillan. . * Bruce Arnold (1977), ''Irish Art, a concise history''. London: Thames and Hudson. * 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 . * 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. . * 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 Friendship''. The 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.

External links

* *
Yeats Society Sligo
*
Boston College collection of Yeats family papers
at John J. Burns Library,

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifi ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeats, John Butler 1839 births 1922 deaths 19th-century Irish painters Irish male painters 20th-century Irish painters Alumni of Trinity College Dublin

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Seco ...

Irish Anglicans Irish draughtsmen People from County Down 19th-century Irish male artists 20th-century Irish male artists Burials in Warren County, New York