Jack Butler Yeats (1871–1957): Ireland's Olympic Medalist & Leading 20th-Century Painter Jack Butler Yeats stands as a towering figure in 20th-century Irish art, an artist who defied categorization and forged his own unique path. He was born in London, England, August 29th, 1871, the youngest son of John Butler Yeats (1839–1922), a barrister who became a successful portrait painter, and brother to W.B. Yeats (William Butler), who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. Yeats’s early life was marked by familial instability; his father struggled to establish himself as an artist, resu…