Creator
John Butler Yeats
Title
Lady Gregory
Subject
Pencil drawing. Inscribed by the artist, "Lady Gregory"
Description
John Butler Yeats, Yeats’s father, left a budding career as a lawyer in 1867 to become a portrait painter. His impracticality as a businessman and inability to finish his work in timely fashion severely limited his success and often left his family in straitened circumstances. Although he was somewhat jealous of Lady Gregory’s management of his eldest son, he greatly admired her pragmatism and deeply appreciated the patronage and encouragement she also gave to both him and his son Jack. He made several drawings of her before he left Ireland to live in New York City in 1906, highlighting the simple style with which she usually appeared, unadorned and dressed in black.
Source
Courtesy of Colm Tóibín.
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