Title: Portrait of Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) as a Boy
Date: c. 1883-1884
Medium: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Presented, Mr Jack B. Yeats, 1947
Object Number: NGI.1142
DescriptionJBY had a gift for child portraiture. This half-length portrait, fluidly painted in light tones, reveals his growing interest in the work of Whistler. He skilfully captures his younger son’s innocent, yet independent spirit. Jack spent most of his youth in Sligo with his maternal grandparents, the Pollexfens. In London he attended the School of Art at South Kensington, the Chiswick Art School in Bedford Park, and the Westminster School. JBY’s later painting of Jack aged eighteen or nineteen was done in Bedford Park, where the Yeats family settled in 1888. (1890; NGI.4040)
ProvenancePresented, Mr Jack B. Yeats, 1947
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1883
Irish Exhibition, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1951
W.B. Yeats: A Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1965
Jack B. Yeats and his Family, Sligo; Dublin, 1971
John Butler Yeats and the Irish Renaissance, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1972
At a Glance - Portraits by John Butler Yeats, National Gallery of Ireland, 24 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextJBY had a gift for child portraiture. This half-length portrait, fluidly painted in light tones, reveals his growing interest in the work of Whistler. He skilfully captures his younger son’s innocent, yet independent spirit. Jack spent most of his youth in Sligo with his maternal grandparents, the Pollexfens. In London he attended the School of Art at South Kensington, the Chiswick Art School in Bedford Park, and the Westminster School. JBY’s later painting of Jack aged eighteen or nineteen was done in Bedford Park, where the Yeats family settled in 1888. (1890; NGI.4040)