Lot 63: JOHN BUTLER YEATS

1839-1922 SELF PORTRAITS Quantity: 2 one inscribed, signed and dated l.r.: Myself/ seen through a glass - / by/ JB Yeats/ Oct - 1919; the other bears the signatures and inscriptions of various members of the Yeats family and the date 17th December 1968 on the backboard both pencil one 48 by 35cm., 19 by 14in., the other 29.5 by 23cm., 11Â by 9in.

Throughout his career, Yeats painted and sketched, and mastered both media. From 1890-1897, Yeats was primarily a black and white artist and focused on book illustrations, sketches, and frontispieces. These pencil self-portraits are examples of Yeats’s affinity for drawing.