Lot 81: John Butler Yeats RHA (1839-1922) PORTRAIT OF A

John Butler Yeats RHA (1839-1922) PORTRAIT OF A MAN, 26 JUNE 1904 signed, inscribed and dated lower left pencil on reverse of a handwritten menu card 16 by 11cm., 6.25 by 4.25in> Provenance: Collection of Lady Gregory, Coole Park; Private collection John Butler Yeats was in London in June 1904 to coalesce a visit to the Guildhall, 'Exhibition of a Selection of Works by Irish Painters', which opened in May and which contained six of his paintings (of the 465 on display), and to attend at a performance of Willie's (William Butler Yeats') Where There is Nothing. The timing of these two very significant Irish events in London in mid-June of 1904 meant that a large community of Irish, from the arts scene in particular, were present in the city at this time. It is uncertain how John Butler Yeats financed this journey to London but it has been suggested that Lady Gregory was a possible sponsor> William M. Murphy, in his text Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yeats indicates that she had asked him to do s etches for her at the rehearsal for the play, which he attended along with many others from Dublin. On Sunday, June 26 1904, the day of the debut performance of Where There is Nothing, John Butler Yeats dined beforehand with Willie, Miss Annie Horniman, Charles Shannon, Charles Ricketts, Robert Gregory and Florence Farr in Sloane Square, London. All these individuals were prominent figures in the formation of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Murphy notes that Miss Horniman gave Yeats her ticket for the performance, "the best seat in the house", he told Lily, "front row in the middle of the Gallery" while she sat in William Butler Yeats' box with Arthur Symons and his wife. The play, Murphy notes, could not be shown in Dublin at that time because of the controversial nature of its plot, but cites the June 1904 performance as "splendid, most stimulating". William M. Murphy, Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yeats, Cornell University Press, 1978, p. 271