Jack B. Yeats
Artist, 1871-1957

Jack Butler Yeats was the youngest of the five children of the painter John B. Yeats. His father had barely finished art school when Yeats was born in London on 29 August 1871. Yeats spent much of his childhood with his mother's parents in Sligo, where he sketched with equal enthusiasm the town's quavs and the surrounding countryside. Returning to London in 1887, he studied art and began to illustrate magazines. Boxing and horse-racing were favourite subjects, often tackled humorously.

In 1894, he married Mary Cottenham White, a Devon artist. In 1895, his water-colour of 'Strand races, West of Ireland' was accepted by the Royal Hibernian Academy. Since photography now threatened traditional illustrations, he developed this side of his talent, exhibiting in London and Dublin. Lady Gregory saw his work as complementing the Irish Literary Revival in which his brother W. B. Yeats was deeply involved. He illustrated articles by J. M. Synge and also his book on The Aran Islands. Other drawings accompanied broadsheet poems produced by the Cuala Press, and in 1912 he published Life in the West of Ireland.

Yeats and 'Cottie' moved from Devon to Ireland in 1910, and he worked increasingly in oils. Paintings such as 'Bachelor's Walk: In Memory' (1915) and 'The Funeral of Harry Boland' (1922) reflected the unsettled times. Later, his careful draughtsmanship gave way to broader brush work and richer colours, with mystical titles such as 'A Race in Hy-Brazil' (1937) and 'And Graine saw this sun sink' (1950).

Many Yeats paintings have a narrative element, and not surprisingly he turned to writing. His novels included Sailing, Sailing Swiftly (1933) and The Aramanthers (1936), and plays such as La La Noo (1942) and In Sand (1949) were staged at the Abbey Theatre. However, none of his writing has the impact of the evocatively Irish drawings and paintings which, late in his life, established an international reputation. He died in Dublin on 28 March 1957.

See:
A plaque marks Yeats' home at 18 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin.
Read:
Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats (1970).

From the Appletree Press title: Famous Irish Lives.
Also from Appletree: Irish Museums and Heritage Centres.