Jack Butler Yeats RHA – W Bird (1871-1957)
The most influential Irish artist of the twentieth century studied art at the South Kensington Schools, Chiswick Art School and the Westminster School of Art. His first solo exhibition was held in 1899 in Dublin and he was elected a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1915.
He contributed illustrations and cartoons to numerous publications and his first submission to Punch was published in 1896. From 1910 until he ceased submitting work in 1941, he used the pseudonym W Bird.
‘The other essentially comic artist [with George Morrow] who gave Punch its character was ‘W Bird’… His humour was irrational, wild and precise, his drawing much criticised as incompetent. He broke all the rules and his genius still draws readers back to volumes in which nothing much else appeals to them. He was not exactly a representative of the modern art of the day, as he was in his serious painting, but he owed a good deal to it.’ (Price, 1957).
Collections
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Leeds City Art Gallery
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Tate Britain
York City Art Gallery
Sources and further reading
Bryant M and Heneage S (1994), Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists 1730-1980, Scolar Press
Dolman B (1981), A Dictionary of British Artists, 1929, Antique Collectors’ Club
Johnson J and Greutzner A (1999), British Artists 1880-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club
Price R G G (1957), A History of Punch, Collins
Spalding F (1990), 20th Century Painter and Sculptors, Antique Collectors’ Club
Waters G M (1975), Dictionary of British Artists 1900-1950, Eastbourne Fine Art
The most influential Irish artist of the twentieth century studied art at the South Kensington Schools, Chiswick Art School and the Westminster School of Art. His first solo exhibition was held in 1899 in Dublin and he was elected a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1915.
He contributed illustrations and cartoons to numerous publications and his first submission to Punch was published in 1896. From 1910 until he ceased submitting work in 1941, he used the pseudonym W Bird.
‘The other essentially comic artist [with George Morrow] who gave Punch its character was ‘W Bird’… His humour was irrational, wild and precise, his drawing much criticised as incompetent. He broke all the rules and his genius still draws readers back to volumes in which nothing much else appeals to them. He was not exactly a representative of the modern art of the day, as he was in his serious painting, but he owed a good deal to it.’ (Price, 1957).
Collections
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Leeds City Art Gallery
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Tate Britain
York City Art Gallery
Sources and further reading
Bryant M and Heneage S (1994), Dictionary of British Cartoonists and Caricaturists 1730-1980, Scolar Press
Dolman B (1981), A Dictionary of British Artists, 1929, Antique Collectors’ Club
Johnson J and Greutzner A (1999), British Artists 1880-1940, Antique Collectors’ Club
Price R G G (1957), A History of Punch, Collins
Spalding F (1990), 20th Century Painter and Sculptors, Antique Collectors’ Club
Waters G M (1975), Dictionary of British Artists 1900-1950, Eastbourne Fine Art