John Butler Yeats
, Irish, 1839-1922
Title
Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957), ArtistDate1899
MediumGraphite on paper
Dimensions
29 x 23 cm
Signedcentre right: JBYeats/ July - 1899 -
Credit LinePurchased, 1932
Object numberNGI.2945
DescriptionOf the two pencil portraits of Jack that JBY produced in 1899, Lady Gregory chose this one for her collection. In May 1899, he wrote to her about it, ‘I have done a sketch of Jack, which in point of skill is the best I have done yet.’ Jack, whose head emerges from the gloom of the densely worked background, looks off into the distance contemplatively. In 1920 his father wrote of him, ‘He has the habits of a man who knows his own mind.’ Today, Jack B. Yeats is celebrated as one of Ireland’s foremost artists of the twentieth century.ProvenancePurchased, Coole Park, Lady Gregory Sale, 1932Exhibition HistoryPaintings and Drawings by John Butler Yeats from the Collection of Senator Michael B. Yeats and the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1972
At a Glance - Portraits by John Butler Yeats, National Gallery of Ireland, 24 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextOf the two pencil portraits of Jack that JBY produced in 1899, Lady Gregory chose this one for her collection. In May 1899, he wrote to her about it, ‘I have done a sketch of Jack, which in point of skill is the best I have done yet.’ Jack, whose head emerges from the gloom of the densely worked background, looks off into the distance contemplatively. In 1920 his father wrote of him, ‘He has the habits of a man who knows his own mind.’ Today, Jack B. Yeats is celebrated as one of Ireland’s foremost artists of the twentieth century.