Jack B. Yeats

A bit about Yeats…… one of Ireland’s most successful 20th century painters

  • Born in London, 1871
  • Raised in Sligo by his grandparents
  • His brother was the famous poet, William Butler Yeats
  •  His father was a famous portrait painter, John Butler Yeats, and his creative sisters were embroiderers called Lilly and Lolly
  •  Returned to London in 1888 to study art
  •  Met his wife (Mary Cottenham White) at art college
  •  Began his artistic career as an illustrator
  •  Provided artwork for popular periodicals of the day including the sports journals Ariel and Paddock Life
  •  Moved to Devon with his wife in 1897
  •  Started to establish himself as a fine artist
  •  Became increasingly interested in Ireland as a source of subject matter and travelled there frequently
  •  Captivated by the customs and traditions of rural Irish communities
  • Travelled around Ireland making sketches of fairs, markets, sporting events and local characters
  •  Between 1900-1909 he filled over 100 sketchbooks, which he used to inform his paintings
  •  Moved to Wicklow in 1910
  •  His painting style changed dramatically when he started to use oil paints
  •  Abandoned line and flat, realistic colours for broad brushwork, thick impasto (the thick application of paint/visible brushstrokes) and an expressive use of colour
  •  Died in Dublin, 1957

     

Activity:

Compare and contrast his early work with his late work according to:
 

  • subject matter (what the painting is about)
  • composition (the layout)
  • style (the visual appearance of the work)
  • technique and materials (the way in which the work was constructed and the medium(s) used)


Examples of Yeats' work at various stages during his career:

Bachelor’s Walk, In Memory, 1915 (early career)
The Liffey Swim, 1923 (mid career)
Grief, 1951 (late career)

Pdf Jack B. Yeats - compare and contrast his paintings
Size: 194.7K bytesModified: 16 October 2014, 16:44



 


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