Jack Butler Yeats was born in London but spent most of his childhood with his grandparents in Co. Sligo. Initially self taught, Yeats took classes at various institutions including South Kensington, Westminster, Chiswick Art and West London schools of art. In the late 1880s he began his career as an illustrator, creating pen and ink drawings for journals and books, and cartoons for Punch Magazine under the pseudonym W. Bird. Yeats spent much of his time in Connemara and returned to Ireland full
time in 1910, settling in Greystones, Co. Wicklow.
Hugely active on the Irish art scene, he participated in over 160 group shows during his lifetime, including regular appearances at the RHA who elected him a full member in 1916. Yeats was also a founder member of the Society of Dublin Painters. He continued his graphic works for the Cuala Press and designs for Dun Emer, but in 1925 decided to focus more on his own oil paintings for which he is widely regarded today. Perhaps the most significant figure in 20th Century Irish painting, he was heralded at Hugh Lane’s exhibition of Irish Art at Guildhall, London, as the ‘most distinctively Irish painter’.
Jack B. Yeats' work was included in the exhibition 'A Celebration of Irish Art and Modernism' (2011) and 'Ireland: Her People and Landscape' (2012).
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