Lot 87: John Butler Yeats RHA (1839-1922) HEAD OF A WOMAN pencil on paper 48 by 39cm., 19 by 15.25in. Provenance: Miss M. Weir, Belfast (as per lot 81);

John Butler Yeats RHA (1839-1922) HEAD OF A WOMAN pencil on paper 48 by 39cm., 19 by 15.25in. Provenance: Miss M. Weir, Belfast (as per lot 81); Thence by descent to the previous owner Yeats' subtle and soft handling of the black lead pencil, seen to excellent effect in this work, is typical of his style in the late 1890s and early 1900s. In the introduction to Yeats' exhibition in Dublin in 1901 the critic Frederick York Powell, wrote: 'he has incontestably made the soft greys and dark sheen of the black lead the vehicle of some of his most intimate and successful interpretations of living nature'. The sitter is possibly his daughter Lily, who sat for her father on many occasions (see for instance Lily Yeats Reclining, circa 1897, plate 19 in Fintan Cullen, The Drawings of John Butler Yeats (1839-1922), Albany Institute of History and Art, New York, 1987, and Portrait of Lily Yeats, circa 1901 oil on canvas, National Gallery of Ireland). E6000-8000 (GBP4100-5400 approx.)