Yeats was born in
Lawrencetown, townland of
Tullylish,
County Down to an
Anglo-Irish family. His parents were William Butler Yeats (1806–1862) and Jane Grace Corbert; John Butler Yeats was the eldest of nine children. Educated at
Trinity College Dublin, and a member of the
University Philosophical Society, John Butler Yeats began his career as a lawyer and
devilled briefly with
Isaac Butt before he took up painting in 1867 and studied at the
Heatherley School of Fine Art. After John Butler Yeats returned to Ireland in 1881, he began to exhibit paintings at the
Royal Hibernian Academy, which elected him a member (RHA) in 1892. There are few records of his sales, so there is no catalogue of his work in private collections. It is possible that some of his early work may have been destroyed by fire in
World War II. It is clear that he had no trouble getting commissions as his sketches and oils are found in private homes in Ireland, England and America. His later portraits show great sensitivity to the sitter. However, he was a poor businessman and was never financially secure. He moved house frequently and shifted several times between England and Ireland. In 1907, at the age of 68, he travelled to New York aboard the '''' with his daughter Lily and never returned to Ireland. In October 1909 he moved into his final home, a boarding house run by the Petitpas sisters which was located at 317 West 29th Street. Edmund Quinn made a death mask which is now in the collection of the Yeats Society in Sligo. Susan is described as a "shadowy figure" who went "quietly, pitifully, mad". John and Susan had three sons and three daughters, including writer
William Butler Yeats and artists
Jack Butler Yeats,
Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats, and
Elizabeth Corbet "Lollie" Yeats. ==Gallery==