Jack B Yeats, Irish Expressionist Artist, Romantic Painter, Biography, Paintings, Collections

Jack Butler Yeats
Biography And Paintings of the Irish Romantic Expressionist Artist.

The Two Travellers (1942)

Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957)

One of the most important figures in the visual art of Ireland during the 20th century, Jack B Yeats' paintings of scenes of daily Irish life and Celtic mythology contributed to the surge of nationalist spirit in Irish painting after the War of Independence. A fine draughtsman of Irish life, his status as one of the great Irish artists of the twentieth century is reinforced by the fact he was the first painter from Ireland to sell a painting for £1 million. For details, see: Most Expensive Irish Paintings.

The Liffey Swim (1923)

MORE ABOUT ART IN IRELAND
For answers to popular queries,
see: Irish Art Questions.

The Singing Horseman (1949)

EVOLUTION OF IRISH ART
BEFORE 1800
18th Century Irish Artists.
1800-1899
19th Century Irish Artists.
1900-PRESENT
20th Century Irish Artists.
PERSONAL TOP LIST
Best Irish Artists (Painters).

Jack Butler Yeats was born in London in 1871, the youngest son of Irish portraitist John Butler Yeats, and the brother of the Nobel Prize winning poet William Butler Yeats. He studied painting and drawing at the Westminster School of Art under Fred Brown, before leaving to work as a graphic artist, cartoonist (in 1894 he created the first cartoon strip of Sherlock Holmes), illustrator and water-colourist.

While he began using oils from about 1897, Yeats did not regularly produce oil paintings until 1905, preferring to work in watercolours. His early artworks were romantic depictions of landscapes and figures from the west of Ireland, particularly from his home in Sligo. He was influenced by the French Impressionist masters in the art collection of Sir Hugh Lane and began exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1899.

After residing in London, he lived in Devon (England) for fourteen years, before moving to Greystones in county Wicklow. In 1917, he moved to Dublin. From around 1920, he developed a much more Expressionist style, moving from illustration to symbolism.

Off the Donegal Coast (1922) stems
from a drawing made by Yeats in
1906, which depicted four fishermen
in their currach, pausing on the top
of a large wave to scour the horizon
for land. This painting shows a point
of extreme danger as the fishermen
in their flimsy canvas-built craft are
caught in a storm and try to catch the
rope thrown from a lifeboat. The
drama is perfectly captured in Yeats'
vigorous brushstrokes and strong,
natural colours.

The Small Ring (1930) produced in
the loose expressionist manner Yeats
mastered during the late twenties,
depicts a young boxer just as he
knocks out his opponent. The crowd
around him, even his 'second' with
the towel, are transfixed with surprise.
The painting contains a number of
different messages.

Sympathetic to but not active in the Irish Republican movement, he began to produce emotional, yet realistic, paintings of urban and rural life in Ireland. At the same time, he started using a wider and brighter range of colours - often applied very thickly with implements other than a paint-brush - along with free and loose brushstrokes. His compositions included genre paintings of circuses, music halls, and horse races, sombre landscapes of Ireland's west coast, as well as scenes from Celtic mythology. In 1924, he was awarded the silver medal for painting at the Tailteann Games.

After the death of his wife in 1947, to whom he had been happily married since 1894, his work became increasingly nostalgic. Retrospective exhibitions of his paintings were held at the National Gallery, London, 1942, in Dublin 1945, in the London Tate Gallery 1948, while a showing of his last works was staged at the Waddington Galleries, London, in 1958. Although some critics have dismissed Jack B Yeats' artwork as irrelevant, an exhibition of his paintings at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, in 1971, revived his reputation as perhaps the most important modern painter in the history of Irish art. Jack B Yeats passed away in Dublin on March 28, 1957.

More Information About Irish Visual Arts and Culture

• For details of other expressionist painters, see: Irish Artists: Paintings and Biographies.
• For more about painters in Ireland, like Jack B Yeats, see: Irish Art Guide.
• For more about world culture, see: Art Encyclopedia.

• NOTE: To update Jack Butler Yeats' biography, click Here.