William Butler Yeats - Artist Info

About William Butler Yeats

  • Biography

    William Butler Years was the eldest son of the artist John Butler Yeats and brother to the artist Jack. He spent the first 15 years of his life in London, attending the Godolphin School in Hammersmith. He spent his holidays in Sligo with his grandparents, the Pollexfens, as did his brother Jack.

    William attended the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin from 1884 to 1885 and then in 1886 at the RHA schools. Around this time, having met the artist and mystic, George Russell 'AE', he decided to devote himself to writing and abandoned his artistic studies, going on to become the most important and influential Irish poet of the 20th Century. In the mid 1890's Yeats met Lady Gregory and in 1...

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