John Butler Yeats, Irish, 1839-1922
Title: Elizabeth Corbet Yeats
Date: c.1899
Medium: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Presented, Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland (Patrons of Irish Art Funds), 2017
Object Number: NGI.2017.45
DescriptionThough his clientele was broader, John Butler Yeats was most comfortable painting his family and friends. Prominent among them were his children, of whom he produced a large number of portraits, on both canvas and paper, over a long period. It is indicative of his relative confidence when painting them that the two paintings he hoped would earn him admission to the Royal Academy Annual Exhibition for the first time in London in 1901 were portraits of his daughters Lily and Lolly. He wrote to Sarah Purser that he had been working on the former for a year and a half.
ProvenanceThe Artist's family, thence by descent; purchased at auction, Sotheby's, London, Yeats: The Family Collection Sale, 27 September 2017, lot 138
Exhibition HistoryYeats; Portrait of a Family, The Model, Sligo, 9 June - 16 December, 2018