Jack Butler Yeats facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jack Butler Yeats
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Yeats in 1904
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| Born | 29 August 1871 London, England
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| Died | 28 March 1957 (aged 85) Dublin, Ireland
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| Known for | Painting |
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| Relatives | W. B. Yeats (brother) Lily Yeats (sister) Elizabeth Yeats (sister) |
| Olympic medal record | ||
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| Art competitions | ||
| Silver | 1924 Paris | Painting |
Jack Butler Yeats (born August 29, 1871 – died March 28, 1957) was a famous Irish artist. He was also an Olympic medalist! His brother was the well-known writer, W. B. Yeats.
At first, Jack Butler Yeats worked as an illustrator, drawing pictures for stories. He started painting regularly with oils in 1906. His early paintings showed simple, beautiful landscapes and people. Many of these scenes were from the west of Ireland, especially Sligo, where he grew up.
Yeats's art often showed feelings and imagination, like the Romanticism art style. Later, he began to paint in a style called Expressionism. This style uses strong colors and shapes to show emotions rather than just what things look like.
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About Jack Butler Yeats
Yeats was born in London, England. He was the youngest son of John Butler Yeats, who was also a portrait painter. His brother, W. B. Yeats, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
Jack grew up in Sligo with his grandparents. In 1887, he moved back to London to live with his parents. He went to the Chiswick School of Art with his sisters, Elizabeth and Susan.
Early Career and Family Life
When he was younger, Yeats worked as an illustrator for magazines. These included Boy's Own Paper and Judy. He also drew comic strips, like a funny version of Sherlock Holmes called "Chubb-Lock Homes." He even wrote articles for Punch magazine.
In 1894, he married Mary Cottenham. She was also from England. They lived in Wicklow, Ireland, according to a census from 1911.
His Unique Painting Style
Around 1920, Yeats's art changed a lot. He became a strong Expressionist artist. This meant he used bold colors and brushstrokes to show feelings and ideas. He moved from just illustrating to using Symbolism in his art. This is where objects or colors stand for deeper meanings.
Yeats supported the idea of an independent Ireland, but he wasn't involved in politics. He believed that an artist should feel connected to the land and life they paint. His art helped show what modern Dublin was like in the 20th century. He painted Irish subjects, but also explored big ideas like loneliness.
The writer Samuel Beckett said that Yeats was one of the "great" artists of his time. He said Yeats brought "light" to the difficult parts of life.
What He Loved to Paint
Yeats loved to paint the Irish countryside. He also painted horses, circuses, and traveling performers. His early drawings and paintings were simple and full of energy. Later, his paintings used very thick paint, applied in many different ways. He often didn't even use a brush! He was very interested in how colors could show strong feelings.
Jack Butler Yeats is considered the most important Irish artist of the 20th century. He was the first Irish artist to have a painting sell for over £1 million. He never taught anyone how to paint and didn't let people watch him work. This makes his style very unique. His friend, the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka, had a style similar to his.
In 1943, he chose Victor Waddington to be his only art dealer and manager. Waddington helped his career and reputation a lot.
Beyond Painting
Besides painting, Yeats was very interested in theatre and literature. He was a close friend of the writer Samuel Beckett. He designed sets for the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Three of his own plays were also performed there. His books include The Careless Flower and The Amaranthers.
Yeats often gave his paintings poetic and thoughtful titles. He became a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1916. He passed away in Dublin in 1957 and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery.
Olympic Medalist
Jack Butler Yeats has a special place in history. He was Ireland's first medalist at the Olympic Games after the Irish Free State was formed. At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, his painting called The Liffey Swim won a silver medal. This was part of the arts and culture section of the Games. In the official records, the painting was simply called Swimming.
Famous Works
Jack Butler Yeats's paintings are very valuable. Here are some examples:
- In November 2010, his painting A Horseman Enters a Town at Night sold for almost £350,000. It was painted in 1948.
- Another painting, Man in a Room Thinking (1947), sold for £66,000 at the same auction.
- His painting Sleep Sound (1955) was bought by musician David Bowie in 1993. It later sold for £233,000 in 2016.
- In 1999, The Wild Ones sold for over £1.2 million.
- The highest price ever paid for a Yeats painting is for Reverie (1931). It sold for €1,400,000 in November 2019.
The Model, which is home to The Niland Collection in Sligo, has one of the best collections of Jack B. Yeats's art. They often show his work in special exhibitions.
Where to See His Art
You can see Jack Butler Yeats's paintings in many museums around the world:
- The Model, Sligo
- The Hunt Museum, Limerick
- National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
- Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
- Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
- The Swinford Funeral at the Walters Art Museum
- The Municipal Art Collection, Waterford
- Ulster Museum, Belfast
- The Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame
- Driftwood in a Cave at the Snite Museum of Art
See also
- Art competitions at the 1924 Summer Olympics
