Jack Butler Yeats

He met fellow student Mary Cottenham while studying in art school and married her in 1894. The couple had a loving marriage that lasted till Mary’s death in 1947.

He died in 1957 at the age of 86.

Yeats was born in London as one of the sons of the Irish portraitist John Butler Yeats. The renowned Nobel Prize winning writer William Butler Yeats was his brother.

He spent the most of his childhood and youth in Sligo with his maternal grandparents. His was deeply influenced by his grandfather, William Pollexfen who was a former seaman.

He visited numerous places like circuses, horse races, beaches, harbours, fairs, etc. in Sligo with his grandfather which enriched his knowledge of the country life.

He received his early art education at the Government School of Design in South Kensington before attending the Chiswick Art School. He continued his education at the prestigious Westminster School of Art under Fred Brown.

He began his career as an illustrator for magazines; one of his first jobs was with the ‘Vegetarian’ with whom he worked for seven years. He also provided illustrations and drawings for other publications like ‘Punch’, ‘Manchester Guardian’ and ‘The Sketch’ to supplement his income.

He is credited to have produced the first cartoon strip of Sherlock Holmes, a parody ‘Chubb-Lock Homes’ for ‘Comic Cuts’ in 1894.

By this time he had started painting in watercolours. His favourite subjects were horses, circuses, ships, rural people and countryside. He held his first exhibition at the Clifford Galleries in 1897.

He was also a budding writer who worked as an editor and illustrator for several monthly magazines including ‘Broadsheet’ (1902-03) and ‘Broadside’ (1908-15).

Yeats also loved theatre and he built a miniature theatre in the countryside and wrote plays for the local children. Some of his children’s works were ‘A Little Fleet’ and ‘The Terror of the Western Seas’.

His ‘A Bachelor’s Walk: In Memory’ is one of his seminal works in support of the Irish Nationalist cause. The painting depicts a flower girl paying her respects at the spot in a street where several Irish men were gunned down by British soldiers.

His portrayal of Ireland’s famous sporting event, the Liffey Swim, an annual race in Dublin’s river Liffey in his painting ‘The Liffey Swim’ won him the country’s first ever Olympic Medal.