# John Butler Yeats

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Anglo-Irish artist (1839–1922)

John Butler Yeats RHA John Butler Yeats by Alice Boughton Born (1839-03-16)16 March 1839 Lawrencetown, County Down, Ireland Died 3 February 1922(1922-02-03) (aged 82) New York City, U.S. Resting place Chestertown, New York, U.S. Education Trinity College, Dublin Heatherley School of Fine Art Known for Painting Children W. B. Yeats Lily Yeats Elizabeth Yeats Jack Butler Yeats

**John Butler Yeats** [RHA](/source/Royal_Hibernian_Academy) (16 March 1839 – 3 February 1922) was an [Irish](/source/Irish_people) artist and the father of [W. B. Yeats](/source/W._B._Yeats), [Lily Yeats](/source/Lily_Yeats), [Elizabeth Corbett "Lollie" Yeats](/source/Elizabeth_Yeats) and [Jack Butler Yeats](/source/Jack_Butler_Yeats). The [National Gallery of Ireland](/source/National_Gallery_of_Ireland) holds a number of his portraits in oil and works on paper, including one of his portraits of his son William, painted in 1900.[1]

## Career

Yeats was born in [Lawrencetown](/source/Lawrencetown%2C_County_Down), townland of [Tullylish](/source/Tullylish), [County Down](/source/County_Down) to an [Anglo-Irish](/source/Anglo-Irish) family. His parents were William Butler Yeats (1806–1862) and Jane Grace Corbert; John Butler Yeats was the eldest of nine children. Educated at [Trinity College Dublin](/source/Trinity_College_Dublin), and a member of the [University Philosophical Society](/source/University_Philosophical_Society), John Butler Yeats began his career as a lawyer and [devilled](/source/Devilling) briefly with [Isaac Butt](/source/Isaac_Butt) before he took up painting in 1867 and studied at the [Heatherley School of Fine Art](/source/Heatherley_School_of_Fine_Art).[2] After John Butler Yeats returned to Ireland in 1881, he began to exhibit paintings at the [Royal Hibernian Academy](/source/Royal_Hibernian_Academy), which elected him a member (RHA) in 1892.[3] There are few records of his sales, so there is no catalogue of his work in private collections. It is possible that some of his early work may have been destroyed by fire in [World War II](/source/World_War_II). It is clear that he had no trouble getting commissions as his sketches and oils are found in private homes in Ireland, England and America. His later portraits show great sensitivity to the sitter. However, he was a poor businessman and was never financially secure. He moved house frequently and shifted several times between England and Ireland.

In 1907, at the age of 68, he travelled to New York aboard the *[RMS *Campania*](/source/RMS_Campania)* with his daughter Lily and never returned to Ireland.[4] In October 1909 he moved into his final home, a boarding house run by the Petitpas sisters which was located at 317 West 29th Street.[4] In New York, he was friendly with members of the [Ashcan School](/source/Ashcan_School) of painters. He died in the boarding house on 3 February 1922.[5] Edmund Quinn made a death mask which is now in the collection of the Yeats Society in Sligo.[4] John Butler Yeats is buried in Chestertown Rural Cemetery in [Chestertown, New York](/source/Chestertown%2C_New_York), next to his friend, [Jeanne Robert Foster](/source/Jeanne_Robert_Foster).

## Family

Yeats married Susan Pollexfen (13 July 1841 – 3 January 1900) on 10 September 1863 at St. John's Church, Sligo. Susan Yeats was dismayed when her husband abandoned the study of law to become an artist.[6] Susan is described as a "shadowy figure" who went "quietly, pitifully, mad".[7]

John and Susan had three sons and three daughters, including writer [William Butler Yeats](/source/William_Butler_Yeats) and artists [Jack Butler Yeats](/source/Jack_Butler_Yeats), [Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats](/source/Lily_Yeats), and [Elizabeth Corbet "Lollie" Yeats](/source/Elizabeth_Yeats).

## Gallery

		- *[Portrait of W. B. Yeats](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portrait_of_W._B._Yeats&action=edit&redlink=1)* (1900)

		- *Self-portrait* (1919)

		- *Portrait of Countess [Constance Markievicz](/source/Constance_Markievicz)* (before 1922); an Irish politician, revolutionary nationalist and [suffragette](/source/Suffragette); pencil drawing

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Portrait of William Butler Yeats"](http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/11684/portrait-of-william-butler-yeats-18651939-poet?ctx=263512f2-dfbf-47f5-95bd-a73152331baf&idx=4). *National Gallery of Ireland online collection*. Retrieved 21 August 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Jack Butler Yeats | Modernist, Symbolist, Landscape | Britannica"](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Butler-Yeats). *www.britannica.com*. Retrieved 27 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["You are being redirected..."](https://www.dib.ie/biography/yeats-john-butler-a9158#:~:text=Because%20of%20his%20failure%20in,elected%20him%20RHA%20in%201892.) *www.dib.ie*. Retrieved 19 February 2025.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_4-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_4-2) Murphy, William M. (2001). *Prodigal father : the life of John Butler Yeats (1839-1922)*. Syracuse, N.Y.: [Syracuse University Press](/source/Syracuse_University_Press). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0815607253](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0815607253). [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [47168769](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/47168769).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [https://www.newspapers.com/image/469277894/?match=1&terms=john%20butler%20yeats](https://www.newspapers.com/image/469277894/?match=1&terms=john%20butler%20yeats)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** O'Donnell and Archibald (1999), p. 424

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** [*The Geography of the Imagination: Forty Essays*, Guy Davenport, p.327](https://books.google.com/books?id=3NlHEbnP_AYC&dq=susan+pollexfen&pg=PA327)

## Sources

- John Butler Yeats, [Early memories; some chapters of autobiography](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62893). Dublin: Cuala Press, 1923

- Douglas N. Archibald (1974), *John Butler Yeats* Bucknell University Press-Irish Writers Series.

- Martyn Anglesea (2003), *Yeats, John Butler* in Brian Lalor (Ed.) *The Encyclopedia of Ireland*. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-7171-3000-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7171-3000-2).

- Bruce Arnold (1977), *Irish Art, a concise history*. London: Thames and Hudson. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-500-20148-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-500-20148-X)

- Robert Gordon (1978), *John Butler Yeats and John Sloan the records of a friendship*. The Dolmen Press New Yeats Papers XIV Dublin.

- Declan J Foley (2009), editor, *Letters of John Butler Yeats to his son Jack B. Yeats*. Lilliput Press Dublin [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-84351-155-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-84351-155-7).

- Joseph Hone, editor (1944), *J.B.Yeats Letters to his son W. B. Yeats and Others 1969-1922*, Faber and Faber, 1 & 2 eds., republished Martin Secker and Waburg Ltd, (1983). Abridged and with an Introduction by John McGahern. (London): Faber, (1999).

- Raymond Keaveney (2002), *National Gallery of Ireland, Essential Guide*. London: Scala. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1-85759-267-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-85759-267-0).

- Janis Londraville, editor, (2003) *Prodigal Father Revisited: Artists and writers in the World of John Butler Yeats*, Locust Hill Press, includes papers from first John Butler Yeats Seminar, Chestertown 2001.

- William M. Murphy (1978), *Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yeats, 1839–1922*, published by Cornell University Press. Paperback 1979, and reprinted in paperback with some new material in 2001 by Syracuse University Press.

- William M. Murphy (1995), *Family Secrets: William Butler Yeats and His Relatives* Syracuse University Press, 1995.

- William M. Murphy (1971), *The Yeats Family and the Pollexfens of Sligo* (Dublin:Dolmen).

- William M. Murphy; Fintan Cullen, eds.(1987), *The Drawings of John Butler Yeats*. (Albany, New York: Albany Institute of History and Art, and Union College, Departments of Art and English).

- William M Murphy (1995), *Family Secrets William Butler Yeats and His Relatives*. Syracuse UP.

- Robert Gordon (1978), *John Butler Yeats and John Sloan: The Record of a Friendship*. The Dolmen Press New Yeats Papers XIV Dublin.

- Lennox Robinson, editor (1920), *Further Letters of John Butler Yeats*: Selected by Lennox Robinson, The Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin.

- Yeats John Butler (1918),*Essays Irish and American*, (with an appreciation by AE) Talbot Press Dublin/T Fisher Unwin London. *Early Memories: Some Chapters of Autobiography* (1923) The Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum County Dublin.

- *Passages From The Letters of John Butler Yeats: Selected by Ezra Pound* (1917). The Cuala Press Churchtown, Dundrum, County Dublin

- James White (1972), *John Butler Yeats and The Irish Renaissance with pictures from the collection of Michael Butler Yeats and from The National Gallery of Ireland*. The Dolmen Press Dublin.

## Further reading

- Tóibín, Colm (25 January 2018). ["The Playboy of West 29th Street"](https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n02/colm-toibin/the-playboy-of-west-29th-street). *[London Review of Books](/source/London_Review_of_Books)*. pp. 7–12. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0260-9592](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0260-9592).

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [John Butler Yeats](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:John_Butler_Yeats).

- ["Archival material relating to John Butler Yeats"](https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F48584). [UK National Archives](/source/The_National_Archives_(United_Kingdom)).

- [Portraits of John Butler Yeats](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp04966) at the [National Portrait Gallery, London](/source/National_Portrait_Gallery%2C_London)

- [Yeats Society Sligo](http://www.yeatssociety.com)

- [Works by John Butler Yeats](https://librivox.org/author/15327) at [LibriVox](/source/LibriVox) (public domain audiobooks)

- [Boston College collection of Yeats family papers](https://bc-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ALMA-BC21323260060001021&context=L&vid=bclib_new&search_scope=lib_BURNS&tab=bcl_only&lang=en_US) at John J. Burns Library, [Boston College](/source/Boston_College)

- [John Butler Yeats](https://lccn.loc.gov/n50014257) at the [Library of Congress](/source/Library_of_Congress), with 16 library catalogue records

v t e W. B. Yeats Poetry Volumes The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889) The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892) In the Seven Woods (1903) Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916) The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) The Tower (1928) The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933) Poems "Adam's Curse" "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" "Blood and the Moon" "The Circus Animals' Desertion" "Down by the Salley Gardens" "A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety" "Easter, 1916" "Ego Dominus Tuus" "The Fiddler of Dooney" "The Gift of Harun Al-Raschid" "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz" "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen" "On being asked for a War Poem" "Politics" "A Prayer for My Daughter" "Remorse for Intemperate Speech" "The Rose of Battle" "The Rose-Tree" "Sailing to Byzantium" "The Scholars" "The Second Coming" "September 1913" "The Song of the Happy Shepherd" "Song of the Old Mother" "The Song of Wandering Aengus" "The Stolen Child" "Swift's Epitaph" "To the Rose upon the Rood of Time" "The Tower" "Under Ben Bulben" "The Wanderings of Oisin" "The Wild Swans at Coole" Plays Mosada (1886) The Land of Heart's Desire (1894) Diarmuid and Grania (1901) Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902) On Baile's Strand (1903) The Countess Cathleen (1911) At the Hawk's Well (1916) The Resurrection (1927) Purgatory (1938) Other works The Works of William Blake: Poetic, Symbolic and Critical (1893; co-author) A Vision (1925) The Bounty of Sweden (1925) "The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows" Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892–1935 (editor) The Ten Principal Upanishads (1938, co-translator) People Georgie Hyde-Lees (wife) Anne Yeats (daughter) Michael Yeats (son) John Butler Yeats (father) Susan Pollexfen (mother) Jack Butler Yeats (brother) Elizabeth Yeats (sister) Lily Yeats (sister) Maud Gonne (muse) Related W. B. Yeats bibliography Rhymers' Club Dun Emer Press Cuala Press An Appointment with Mr Yeats Owen Red Hanrahan "Troy" Thoor Ballylee Samhain magazine The Speckled Bird

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Japan Czech Republic Spain Portugal Netherlands Norway Sweden Poland Israel Catalonia Academics CiNii Artists ULAN RKD Artists Musée d'Orsay People Trove Ireland Other IdRef Open Library SNAC Yale LUX

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Butler Yeats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Butler_Yeats) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Butler_Yeats?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.