Lot 143: John Butler Yeats RHA (1893-1922) Elizabeth Corbet

John Butler Yeats RHA (1893-1922) Elizabeth Corbet Yeats Soft pencil, 35 x 25cm (13.5 x 9.5). Inscribed probably in the sitter's hand Elizabeth (Lolly) Yeats (1868-1940), manager of the Cuala Press, was JBY's third child and second daughter. She also taught drawing, and while in London supported the whole family with her earnings. A capable and decisive personality, she sometimes disagreed with WBY on literary matters, but declined to defer to him. After her death the poet John Masefield wrote to her sister Lily, 'My wife and I have always felt that your Sister did very much to make your Brother what he was, and to keep the Irish movement linked with the progress of the arts rather than with violent political upheaval ..' Provenance: The collection of the Yeats family. From the estate of the late Senator Michael Butler Yeats.