George William Russell (AE), (1867-1935), Artist, Author and Poet

John Butler Yeats , Irish, 1839-1922

Title

Date1898

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensions

32 x 25.3 cm

Signedon centre: JBYeats/1898/Jan

Credit LinePurchased, 1932

Object numberNGI.2943

DescriptionThis sympathetic portrait was drawn in Dublin in January 1898. JBY had known Russell since he was a student at the Metropolitan School of Art, where he attended with his son W.B. Yeats. Russell is shown wearing his great coat or ‘ulster’, with button-on cape. A member of the Dublin Theosophical Society, he published and signed his mystic poetry and paintings with the pseudonym, ‘A.E.’. In June 1898, JBY described him to Lady Gregory as ‘a long fingered visionary’.
ProvenancePurchased, Coole Park, Lady Gregory Sale, 1932Exhibition HistoryLoan Collection of Pictures by Nathaniel Hone, R.H.A. and John Butler Yeats, R.H.A., no. 6 St Stephen's Green, Dublin, 1901

At a Glance - Portraits by John Butler Yeats, National Gallery of Ireland, 24 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextThis sympathetic portrait was drawn in Dublin in January 1898. JBY had known Russell since he was a student at the Metropolitan School of Art, where he attended with his son W.B. Yeats. Russell is shown wearing his great coat or ‘ulster’, with button-on cape. A member of the Dublin Theosophical Society, he published and signed his mystic poetry and paintings with the pseudonym, ‘A.E.’. In June 1898, JBY described him to Lady Gregory as ‘a long fingered visionary’.