John Butler Yeats (Born Tullylish 16 March 1839, died 3 February 1922) was an Irish artist and the father of William Butler Yeats and Jack Butler Yeats. He is probably best known for his portrait of the young William Butler Yeats which is one of a number of his pictures in the Yeats museum in the National Gallery of Ireland. His portrait of John O'Leary (1904) is considered to be his masterpiece (Raymond Keaveney 2002). March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... William Butler Yeats (June 13, 1865 – January 28, 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, mystic and public figure. ... Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) was an Irish artist who wrote and illustrated for books and magazines. ... The National Gallery of Ireland houses the Irish national collection of Irish and European art. ...

Educated in Trinity College Dublin John Butler Yeats began his career as a lawyer and devilled briefly with Isaac Butt before he took up painting in 1867 and studied at Hearthleys Art School. His early work is largerly lost, having been destroyed by fire in WWII, but he seems never to have had no trouble getting commissions and his later portraits show great sensitivity to the sitter. However, he was a poor business man and was never financially secure. He moved house frequently and swapped several times between England and Ireland. At the age of 69 he moved to New York where he was friendly with members of the Ashcan school of painters. The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin or more commonly Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, Irelands oldest university. ... Issac Butt (September 6, 1813 - May 5, 1879) was the founder and first leader of the Home Rule League, subsequently known as the Irish Parliamentary Party. ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ...

External links and references

• Martyn Anglesea (2003), Yeats, John Butler in Brian Lalor (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillian. ISBN 0-7171-3000-2.
• Bruce Arnold (1977), Irish Art, a concise history. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 050020148X
• Raymond Keaveney (2002), National Gallery of Ireland, Essential Guide. London: Scala. ISBN 1857592670.
• Biographical note in the Princess Grace Irish Library (http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/y/Yeats,JohnB/life.htm)

Yeats's paintings were not lost in a fire after World War II. Since there are few records of his sales we know only that hundredsof his sketches and oils exist in private homes in Ireland, England, and America.

The chief account of his life is William M. Murphy's "Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yeats, 1839-1922," poblished by Cornell University Press in 1978, paperback 1939, and reprinted in paperback with some new mnaterial in 2001 by Syracuse University Press.

A second source is William M. Murphy's "Family Secrets: William Butler Yeats and His Relatives," Syracuse University Press, 1995, which contains material not found in "Prodigal Father," including an account of his largely epistolary love affair with Rosa Butt, daughter of the Irish politician and founder of the Home Rule Movement Isaac Butt.