50 / 260
33
John Butler Yeats RHA (1839-1922)
PORTRAIT OF ‘LILY’ (SUSAN MARY) YEATS BY HER FATHER AT BEDFORD PARK, LONDON, c. 1887-1902
oil on panel
remains of original inscribed label on reverse; also with partial label and number 22 on reverse
14 x 11_in. (35.56 x 28.58cm)
Provenance: Whyte’s, Dublin, 28 April 2008, lot 105;Private collection
In a 1930s frame from the Victor Waddington Galleries, Dublin. The Yeats family have long been recognised
as outstanding ambassadors for Ireland in the realm of literature and the arts. With a Noble Laureate poet, an
internationally renowned painter, and two pioneers of the Arts and Crafts movement among their ranks, it might
reasonably be said that the family defined the Irish cultural renaissance. As father of this extraordinary family, John
Butler Yeats commands attention. Yet as an artist in his own right, he has long been ranked one of the most important
portrait painters of his generation. Sarah Purser did much to promote his work when she arranged the joint show of his
paintings in 1901 with Nathaniel Hone, two artists who, Purser rightly perceived, had been disgracefully neglected by
the Academy. The Yeats family lived at Woodstock Road, Bedford Park, from 1879 to 1881 and at Bleinheim Road, Bedford
Park, from 1887 to 1902. This work was probably painted at their Bleinheim Road home, and depicts the artist’s favouritre
daughter Lily.
€10,000-€15,000 (£7350-£11030 approx. approx.)
Large Image & Place Bid Lot 33IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART · 28 SEPTEMBER 2015