Jack Butler Yeats sketchbooks

Part of the Irish Archive

Description

This sub-series includes 204 Jack Butler Yeats sketchbooks and comprises approximately 7000, largely figurative, sketches along with approximately 1000 manuscript pages. Manuscript notes generally relate to the sketches but also include lists, train times, rough notations and calculations. Media used in the sketches include watercolour, graphite, ink, and crayon. Almost all sketchbooks are of a type that would fit easily in the artist’s pocket. Included is 1 sketchbook for 1886; 24 sketchbooks for the period 1894-1899; 101 sketchbooks 1900-1909; 45 sketchbooks 1910-1919; 20 sketchbooks 1920-1929; 1 sketchbook 1930-1939; 9 sketchbooks 1940-1949; and 3 sketchbooks 1950-1955. Yeats uses a variety of media such as watercolour, ink and graphite until 1910 after which his use of mixed media gives way to a simpler approach, generally using only graphite. The majority of sketchbooks have been dated and given broad titles, often a geographic location, by Yeats; where no title was supplied one has been ascribed. The sketchbooks provide an insight into Yeats’s formal artworks by turning up both subject matter and composition and tracking the evolution of his style, they are also visual diaries of his life, particularly for the period 1898-1915. Predominantly sketches reflect time spent in Ireland and England, also featured are New York, Belgium, Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Sketchbook Y1/JY/1/1/4 also includes 31 photographs from [c.1900], other sketchbooks include additions such as race cards and circus posters. Sketchbook Y1/JY/1/1/5 is by Mary Cottenham Yeats, others include sketches by Mary Cottenham Yeats. In this arrangement all sketchbooks have been arranged chronologically. Anne Yeats had stored the sketchbooks in the manner maintained by Jack Butler Yeats which included 41 sketchbooks (Anne Yeats numbers A1-A17, A19-A21, X161-X181) stored separately due to their size or having run out of space in the green tin filing cabinets.

Creator

Yeats, Jack Butler, Yeats, Mary Cottenham

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Related topics

Yeats, Jack Butler Yeats, Mary Cottenham