14
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
Estimate:
€1,000 - €1,500
Sold
€2,800
Live Auction
The Ernie O'Malley Collection in association with Christie's
Size
5 by 3.50in. (12.7 by 8.9cm)
Description
Title: BALLYLEE CASTLE (THOOR BALLYLEE), 1899
Note: Ballylee was built in the late 15th to early 16th century. Occupants over the next few centuries included the Earls of Clanricarde (de Burgo or Burke family), Carrick and Gregory families. In the late 19th century, when Jack Yeats made this sketch, the castle was owned by Lady Augusta Gregory as part of the Coole Park Estate. Thoor Ballylee is also known today as “Yeats’ Tower”, because in 1916 William Butler Yeats, a regular vistor to Lady Gregory’s home, purchased the property for the nominal sum of £35. From 1921 to 1929 Yeats and his family lived there. He wrote about his home in poems like The Tower and Coole Park and Ballylee.
Note: Ballylee was built in the late 15th to early 16th century. Occupants over the next few centuries included the Earls of Clanricarde (de Burgo or Burke family), Carrick and Gregory families. In the late 19th century, when Jack Yeats made this sketch, the castle was owned by Lady Augusta Gregory as part of the Coole Park Estate. Thoor Ballylee is also known today as “Yeats’ Tower”, because in 1916 William Butler Yeats, a regular vistor to Lady Gregory’s home, purchased the property for the nominal sum of £35. From 1921 to 1929 Yeats and his family lived there. He wrote about his home in poems like The Tower and Coole Park and Ballylee.
Medium
watercolour and pencil
Signature
inscribed with title
Provenance
Gifted by the artist to Ernie O'Malley, June 1945;
Thence by family descent
