Jack B Yeats

Jack B. Yeats was born in London, the son of John Butler Yeats, the Irish portrait painter after whom he was named. From an early age, to distinguish himself from his father, he called himself "Jack B. Yeats" and he always used this form as his signature, except when signing with a monogram. He was the younger brother of the poet William Butler Yeats, whose work he illustrated at various times from the beginning to the end of his career. Recently a necessary attention has been paid to their collaboration with their sisters, Lily, who embroidered from WB's poetry and Jack's design, and Elizabeth, who published both her brothers from the Cuala Press, Dublin.

Jack resembled the father (with whom he has often been confused) in keeping abreast of contemporary styles, while maintaining his own individuality. After childhood, the best part of which was spent in Sligo, he entered upon his art, publishing his illustrations in black-and-white magazines from the age of seventeen at the same time as attending sporadically a number of London art schools, including that at South Kensington. Illustrating in journals taught him the value of line, as well as developing an interest in character and emotion (he learned much from May and Furniss). Narrative came easily to him with his Sligo background, as did his love of circus and theatre, which he recognised as avant garde subjects for artists at the time.

While he continued to live in England, retiring from London journalism in 1897 to paint almost totally in watercolours in Devon, he decided to take as his theme "Life", and in particular "life in the West of Ireland" as it was lived then.