John Butler Yeats
PORTRAIT OF SUSAN MARY 'LILY' YEATS
LOT SOLD.
62,500 GBP
Details & Cataloguing
Yeats: The Family Collection
|
London
London
John Butler Yeats
1839-1922
PORTRAIT OF SUSAN MARY 'LILY' YEATS
signed and dated u.r.: J B Yeats/ 1899
oil on canvas
76 by 63.5cm., 30 by 25in.
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
oil on canvas
76 by 63.5cm., 30 by 25in.
Exhibited
Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1899
Literature
Hilary Pyle, Yeats: Portrait of an Artistic Family, London, 1997, p.98, fig.73
Catalogue Note
Lily was John Butler Yeats’ favourite model and he drew her continuously. The present work is one of two major oils he did of her, the other being in the National Gallery of Ireland collection. In July 1897, JBY wrote to Sarah Purser about the current painting, telling her he had been working on the portrait for a year and half - characteristically it took him a long time to finish. The painting was subsequently exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1899, the same year Lily herself exhibited a painting for her first and only time. The work is painted in the fluid style that he had begun to make his own, and is full of the warmth of Lily's personality. A devoted daughter, it was she who accompanied JBY on his voyage to New York, not knowing that he would never return but she continued to write to him regularly.
Suggested Lots
Yeats: The Family Collection
|
London
London
