John Butler Yeats, Irish, 1839-1922
Title: Elkin Mathews (1851-1921)
Date: c.1905
Medium: Graphite on paper
Credit Line: Purchased, 2010
Object Number: NGI.2010.1
DescriptionThis portrait drawing, executed from life, has been sensitively realised.
Charles Elkin Mathews played an important role in the literary life of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century London. As a specialist printer and publisher, he cornered the market in aesthetic books. Bruce Arnold wrote: 'In design, illustration and content, his books seem to epitomise the fin-de-siecle atmosphere of death-wish and corruption.' He lived next door to John Butler Yeats on Blenheim Road, Chiswick in the 1890's . He was a good friend of the Yeats family and published some of William Butler Yeats's early works, including 'The Wind among the Reeds' (1899), and Jack's first play, 'James Flaunty or the Terror of the Western Seas' (1901).
Charles Elkin Mathews played an important role in the literary life of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century London. As a specialist printer and publisher, he cornered the market in aesthetic books. Bruce Arnold wrote: 'In design, illustration and content, his books seem to epitomise the fin-de-siecle atmosphere of death-wish and corruption.' He lived next door to John Butler Yeats on Blenheim Road, Chiswick in the 1890's . He was a good friend of the Yeats family and published some of William Butler Yeats's early works, including 'The Wind among the Reeds' (1899), and Jack's first play, 'James Flaunty or the Terror of the Western Seas' (1901).
Inscriptionlower left (in pencil): Elkin Matthews