Press release 27/9/2017

National Gallery of Ireland purchases works at Sotheby’s London sale, ‘Yeats: The Family Collection’

The National Gallery of Ireland is very pleased to announce that it has purchased a number of works from the sale ‘Yeats: The Family Collection’ at Sotheby’s in London, today, 27 September 2017. 

They include two paintings:  Portrait of Elizabeth Corbet ‘Lolly’ Yeats by John Butler Yeats and Crayfish by Anne Yeats; Two Sketches of John O’Leary; Sketches of Family Life and Three Sketchbooks, New York by John Butler Yeats; A Collection of Early Sketches and Illustrations, and Sketchbook: Ireland 1909 by Jack B. Yeats; a sketchbook, including portraits of Jack and Lily Yeats, a sketchbook of 26 designs, stencils, a watercolour by Mary Cottenham Yeats, and a collection of six photographic portraits of John Butler Yeats.

Sean Rainbird, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland:
“The Gallery had compiled a list of items that were priorities to add to its Yeats family holdings in the collection and was successful in securing several works from Sotheby’s. We liaised with colleagues in other institutions to coordinate our activities and are delighted that we will now be able to make those works accessible to the public. The most eye catching addition was the portrait of Elizabeth Corbet ‘Lolly’ Yeats. The Gallery now owns portraits by John Butler Yeats of all of the artist’s four children. Among other works, the Gallery was also able to acquire sketchbooks by different members of the family and a collection of early illustrations by Jack B. Yeats.”

The Yeats Collection at the National Gallery of Ireland

The Gallery has a significant collection of works by Jack Yeats and the Yeats Family comprising some 135 paintings and works on paper, as well as an extensive Yeats archive.

The Yeats archive consists of a prestigious collection of material donated to the Gallery by Anne Yeats in 1996 and several additional collections acquired since. These collections relate to Jack B. Yeats and members of his extended family and include highlights such as the artist's sketchbooks which cover over fifty years of his career, books from Yeats’s own library, a collection of journals, theatre programmes, original manuscripts, photographs, postcards and letters, as well as general memorabilia such as the artist’s easel and smock. 

This collection also includes material relating to Mary Cottenham Yeats and an extensive collection of old ballads, ballad books and maps. In addition, the archive holds material pertaining to other members of the Yeats family including William Butler Yeats, John Butler Yeats, his sisters Susan Mary ('Lily') and Elizabeth ('Lolly'), niece Anne Yeats and cousin Ruth Pollexfen. The Cuala and Dun Emer Presses are also well represented.

In more recent years, the Gallery has organised a number of exhibitions drawing on its Yeats collection, including, 'The Sketchbooks of Jack B. Yeats 1897-1955’ (2013) and ‘Jack of all Trades: Yeats’s Punch Cartoons and Illustrators by Irish painters (2012).