John Butler Yeats, Irish, 1839-1922
Title: Portrait of Mary Lapsley Guest (née Caughey) (1901-1964)
Date: 1916
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
105 x 84 cm
Signed: upper right: J.B. Yeats, 1916
Credit Line: Bequeathed, Mrs M. Lapsley Guest, 1967
Object Number: NGI.1821
DescriptionMary Lapsley Caughey was fifteen when this portrait was painted. Two oil portraits by JBY of her mother are also in the Gallery’s collection (NGI.1726; NGI.1727). Mrs Caughey had invited the artist to lecture at their home in Pennsylvania. By that time living in United States, JBY was fêted as a raconteur. He wrote to Rosa Butt ‘in England I would be nobody, here I am somebody’ (1 July 1916). He also noted that this portrait had been completed in one sitting (Letter to Rosa Butt, 11 August 1916; Bodleian Library). The young girl sits in a high-backed Jacobean-style chair in a pose much favoured by the artist for his sitters, with head turned to look directly at the viewer.
ProvenanceBequeathed, Mrs M. Lapsley Guest, 1967
Exhibition HistoryJohn 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
At a Glance - Portraits by John Butler Yeats, National Gallery of Ireland, 24 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextWhen John Butler Yeats moved to New York in 1907, he made his living primarily through writing articles and giving lectures at clubs and societies. In 1915, Mary Tower Lapsley Caughey invited him to lecture in her home in Pennsylvania. The following year Yeats returned to paint family members including Mary, then fifteen. Yeats was fêted as a raconteur. He wrote to Rosa Butt: ‘in England I would be nobody, here I am somebody’. He also noted that he completed this portrait in a single sitting, an unusual occurrence as he tended to labour over his paintings.
Label TextMary Lapsley Caughey was fifteen when this portrait was painted. Two oil portraits by JBY of her mother are also in the Gallery’s collection (NGI.1726; NGI.1727). Mrs Caughey had invited the artist to lecture at their home in Pennsylvania. By that time living in United States, JBY was fêted as a raconteur. He wrote to Rosa Butt ‘in England I would be nobody, here I am somebody’ (1 July 1916). He also noted that this portrait had been completed in one sitting (Letter to Rosa Butt, 11 August 1916; Bodleian Library). The young girl sits in a high-backed Jacobean-style chair in a pose much favoured by the artist for his sitters, with head turned to look directly at the viewer.