Augustus Edwin John
, Welsh, 1878-1961
Title
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Poet and DramatistMediumEtching and drypoint
Dimensions
Plate: 17.5 × 12.3 cm
Sheet: 27.7 × 21.7 cm
Credit LinePurchased, 1984
Object numberNGI.20764
DescriptionThe English artist Augustus John made his first etching in 1901, and produced some 130 etchings during the period 1901-1910. In the main they were on small plates, printed in small editions and focused on the human figure. This print was issued by the artist in 1907 in an edition of 50. It was commissioned as a frontispiece for Yeats's Collected Works of 1908. Yeats complained that John's likeness made him seem: a sheer tinker, drunken, unpleasant and disreputable, but full of wisdom, a melancholy English Bohemian, capable of anything, except living joyously on the surface.