John Butler Yeats — Portraitist of the Irish Literary Revival
Irish Artist · 1839–1922
John Butler Yeats
Portraitist of the Irish Literary Revival — and father of the poet W.B. Yeats and the painter Jack B. Yeats.
His portrait of his own son, the poet W.B. Yeats — father drawing genius.
The Story
John Butler Yeats was one of Ireland's finest portrait painters — and the father of two of its greatest talents, the poet W.B. Yeats and the painter Jack B. Yeats. He drew the faces of the Irish Literary Revival with psychological honesty and a draughtsman's grace, and left a gallery of a nation's renaissance.
He was born on 16 March 1839 at Tullylish, Co. Down, the eldest son of a Church of Ireland rector. He studied law at Trinity College Dublin, graduated with honours, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1866 — then promptly abandoned it. In 1867 he took up painting and studied at Heatherley's School of Fine Art in London.
He was a wonderful portraitist, and an incurable one: he could catch a likeness and a soul, but he could rarely bring himself to finish. Pictures were reworked endlessly, deadlines missed, money always short. Yet the results are marvellous — John Millington Synge, Lady Gregory, Maud Gonne, and above all his own remarkable children.
In 1908 he sailed to New York and, to everyone's surprise, never came home. He spent his last fourteen years in a Manhattan boarding house, the most beloved conversationalist and letter-writer in the city, working to the very end on a self-portrait he never quite finished. He died in New York on 3 February 1922, aged 82 — having drawn a movement, and fathered a family that changed Irish culture forever.
Timeline
- 1839 — Born 16 March at Tullylish, Co. Down.
- 1862 — Graduates in law from Trinity College Dublin.
- 1866 — Called to the Irish Bar; soon abandons law.
- 1867 — Takes up painting; studies at Heatherley's, London.
- 1880s–1900s — Portraitist of the Irish Literary Revival.
- 1908 — Sails to New York, where he remains for the rest of his life.
- 1922 — Dies 3 February in New York, aged 82.
Where He Lived
From a Co. Down rectory to a New York boarding house. Click a pin to follow his life.
Co. Down · Dublin · New York — an Irish life that ended in Manhattan.
Featured Works
Collector's Guide
The heart of any Yeats collection is his Portrait of W.B. Yeats — a father drawing his poet son. For the Revival itself, his Maud Gonne McBride and Augusta Gregory are essential, and his John Millington Synge captures the playwright at the height of his powers. Part of our full Irish Art Prints collection.
The Yeats Lover's Gift Guide
Three ways into his world, at three price points.
- Portrait of W.B. Yeats — art print · from €55
- John Millington Synge — art print · from €75
- Maud Gonne McBride — canvas print · from €95
Discover Similar Artists
Sarah Purser — fellow portraitist of literary Ireland. · William Orpen — Dublin's master draughtsman. · John Lavery — Ireland's great society portraitist.