Jack Butler Yeats
Jack Butler Yeats is one of the best-known Irish painters of the 20th century, whose scenes of daily life and Celtic mythology contributed to a surge of nationalism in the Irish arts after the Irish War of Independence between 1919 and 1921.
He was educated in Sligo, Ireland before attending various art schools in London including the South Kensington School of Art and the Chiswick School of Art. Yeats was the youngest child of the artist John Butler Yeats, and brother of the poet William Butler Yeats.
He began his practice as a journalistic illustrator, not regularly painting with oils until about 1905. During the years of the Irish struggle for independence, Yeats began to acquire fame for his romantic, emotional and realistic portrayals of urban and rural Irish life. In his later practice his painting style underwent a major transformation, adopting a more colourful palette and looser, more gestural brush strokes.
Yeats was also a writer, and his literary works including plays, novels and poetry were characterised by the same qualities of colour and expressionism evident in his paintings. His works have been exhibited widely, with a retrospective set to open later this year (2021) at the National Gallery of Ireland.