Graphite on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/augustus-john-om-1362" aria-label="More by Augustus John OM" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Augustus John OM</a>
WB Yeats
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
adults
individuals: male
literary
man
named individuals
people
poet
portraits
work and occupations
Yeats, William Butler
paper unique graphite
W.B. Yeats
support: 353 × 253 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
<p><b>N05298</b> W. B. YEATS 1907
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘John’ b.r.
<br/>Pencil, 9 3/4×8 1/2 (24×22).
<br/>Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Arthur Tooth &amp; Sons; Leicester Galleries; Hugh Walpole, December 1933.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>Hugh Walpole's Collection</i>, French Gallery, May–June 1937 (11); Arts Council tour, 1948–9 (123).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> John, 1952, pp.100–1.</p>
<p>In a letter to John Quinn, dated 4 October 1907, Yeats wrote: ‘Augustus John has been staying at Coole. He came there to do an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etching</span></a> of me for the collected <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> [see <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/john-w-b-yeats-n05218" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05218</span></a>].... I don't know what John will make of me. He made a lot of sketches with the brush and the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> to work the etching from when he went home. I felt rather a martyr going to him ... he exaggerates every little hill and hollow of the face till one looks a gypsy grown old in wickedness and hardship.’</p>
<p>This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> is one of those pencil studies for the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of Yeats now in the City Art Gallery, Manchester, to which the Tate Gallery oil portrait is related.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults individuals: male literary man named individuals people poet portraits work and occupations Yeats, William Butler