William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Poet and Playwright

Albert Power , Irish, 1881-1945

Title

Date1939

MediumBronze

Dimensions

53 cm

SignedA. Power RHA 1939

Credit LineCast commissioned, Werner Schurmann, Dublin, by the Board of Governors and Guardians, 1968

Object numberNGI.8048

DescriptionWilliam Butler Yeats, widely considered the greatest modern Anglo-Irish poet, was the son of the artist John Butler Yeats. He studied art at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art but published his first poetry in 1886. Inspired by Irish literature and folklore he became increasingly involved in Irish political and cultural affairs. He helped found the Irish Literary Theatre (later the Abbey) and campaigned for a national artistic revival. He served as an Irish Free State Senator from 1922 until 1928. In 1932 he was the first Irishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. This is a posthumous portrait by Power, who for its execution relied on his own memories of the poet, and on photographs. The sculptor also trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School and went on to enjoy success as a portraitist of important contemporary literary and political figures. His best-known monument is of the writer Padraig O'Conaire in Galway City (1935).