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John Butler Yeats (16 March 1839 – 3 February 1922) was an
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
artist and the father of
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
,
Lily Yeats Susan Mary Yeats (; 25 August 1866 – 5 January 1949), known as Lily Yeats, was an embroiderer associated with the Celtic Revival. In 1908 she founded the embroidery department of Cuala Industries, with which she was involved until its dissolu ...
, Elizabeth Corbett "Lolly" Yeats and Jack Butler Yeats. The National Gallery of Ireland 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 Tullylish ()PlaceNamesNI - 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, 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 par ...
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. 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 communit ...
, next to his friend,
Jeanne Robert Foster Jeanne Robert Foster (née, Julia Elizabeth Oliver; March 10, 1879 – September 22, 1970) was an American poet from the Adirondack Mountains. Biography Julia Elizabeth Oliver was born in Johnsburg, New York, March 10, 1879. In 1896, she marri ...
.


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; Jack Butler Yeats; and Jane Grace Yeats.


Gallery

William Butler Yeats by John Butler Yeats 1900.jpg, ''Portrait of
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
'' (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'' (before 1922); an Irish politician, revolutionary nationalist and suffragette; pencil drawing


See also

*
List of Irish artists This list of Irish artists includes notable visual artists born or working mainly in Ireland along with a list of critics, collectors and curators who have had an influence on Irish visual arts. __NOTOC__ A * Kevin Abosch (born 1969) – artis ...


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.


Further reading

*


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