Share

License image

John Butler Yeats , Irish, 1839-1922

Title

Portrait of John O'Leary (1830-1907) Nationalist and Journalist

Date1887

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

92 x 71 cm

SignedJ.B. Yeats, 1887 [or] 1889

Credit LineTransferred, National Museum of Ireland, 1969

Object numberNGI.1963

DescriptionJohn O’Leary, the Fenian leader, was convicted of treason and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in 1866. Granted an amnesty in 1870, he lived in exile in Paris until 1885, when he returned to Dublin. JBY believed good portraiture came about ‘where the relation between the sitter and the painter is one of friendship.’ The first of three portraits of O’Leary by JBY in the collection, this image conveys the artist’s personal interest in and intellectual compatibility with his sitter. JBY achieves a sense of immediacy with this portrait. O’Leary appears momentarily disturbed from his reading. He pauses, pince-nez in one hand, book in the other, with a questioning look in his eyes.
ProvenanceTransferred, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, 1969Exhibition HistoryRoyal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1887

At a Glance - Portraits by John Butler Yeats, National Gallery of Ireland, 24 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextJohn O’Leary, the Fenian leader, was convicted of treason and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in 1866. Granted an amnesty in 1870, he lived in exile in Paris until 1885, when he returned to Dublin. JBY believed good portraiture came about ‘where the relation between the sitter and the painter is one of friendship.’ The first of three portraits of O’Leary by JBY in the collection, this image conveys the artist’s personal interest in and intellectual compatibility with his sitter. JBY achieves a sense of immediacy with this portrait. O’Leary appears momentarily disturbed from his reading. He pauses, pince-nez in one hand, book in the other, with a questioning look in his eyes.