embroidery designer susan mary (lily) yeats (1866-1949)
Trained in the embroidery workshop of William Morris’s daughter, May, at Kelmscott House, Lily went on to make her own a significant contribution to the crafts industry with her embroidery designs. Susan’s designs were attuned to the nationalistic fervour of the Celtic revival and the influence of her brother Jack is visible in their bold outline. Her physic abilities were said to have been passed down from the Pollexfen family, through her mother Susan. She was her father’s favourite model. A devoted daughter, she wrote regularly to him during his time in New York. Pictured left: John Butler Yeats, Portrait of Susan Mary (Lily) Yeats, 1899 (est. £20,000–30,000 / €22,500–33,800). printing press pioneer elizabeth corbet (lolly) yeats (1868-1940) Having enjoyed first-hand experience of private printing at Kelmscott House under the tutelage of May Morris, Lolly founded the Cuala Press in 1909 with her sister Lily. Situated south of Dublin, the Press played a crucial role in Ireland’s literary renaissance. Lolly drew material for the Cuala Press from her brothers – first editions by W.B., as well as ballads and poems illustrated by Jack. An accomplished watercolourist who published four brushwork manuals, she went on to influence a generation of writers and women artists. Pictured left: John Butler Yeats, Portrait of Elizabeth Corbert,”Lolly” Yeats, 1899 (est. £20,000–30,000 / €22,500–33,800).

artist jack butler yeats (1871-1957)
Jack lived apart from his immediate family as a boy, and was brought up by his maternal grandparents in the small town of Sligo. In this way, he escaped the manifest intellectual influence of his father and the rest of his siblings. Jack had a strong literary bent as an artist - most of his close friends were writers - and first began his career creating comedic cartoons for the press. He had first turned to oils in 1910, and with a determination to be different from other contemporary artists, he set out to express the fundamental essence of the Irish character. One of the most influential Irish artists of his generation, he fundamentally advanced the history of Irish art because of his originality, and refusal to be trapped by convention. Pictured right: John Butler Yeats, Jack in a Straw Hat, 1875 (est. £10,000–15,000 / €11,300–16,900).