- Creator
- Yeats, John Butler, 1839-1922
- Call number
- Berg Coll MSS 186162
- Physical description
- 1 item (2 pages on 1 leaf) : illustration (drawing) ; 28 x 21 cm
- Preferred Citation
- John Butler Yeats letter with sketch to John Quinn : autograph manuscript signed, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.
John Butler Yeats (1839-1922) was an Irish portrait painter and the father of the poet William Butler Yeats and the painter Jack Butler Yeats. John Quinn (1870-1924) was a corporation lawyer in New York City, and a noted private collector and patron of the arts. Yeats visited New York City in December 1907, remaining there, with Quinn's assistance, until his death in 1922. The item, written and drawn in pen and ink, is a brief autograph letter signed J.B. Yeats to "My dear Quinn," describing the large sketch drawn above as "my reminiscence of last night's dinner - you are not very like, but the other two are not bad." From left to right, the dinner circle consists of Yeats, Quinn and a woman, showing the back of a man in the foreground, with a man's profile to the side crossed out. An additional small self-portrait is drawn below his signature and the date. What appear to be four lines of verse on the other side are also crossed out
Administrative information
Custodial history
Ownership by descent from Julia Quinn Anderson, sister and heir of John Quinn.
Source of acquisition
Purchased, 2022
Note
John Quinn's office stamp (John Quinn 31 Nassau St. New York) marking receipt on April 8, 1921, appears at top
Key terms
Names
- Quinn, John, 1870-1924 (correspondent)
- Yeats, John Butler, 1839-1922 -- Correspondence.
- Yeats, John Butler, 1839-1922 -- Friends and associates.
Subjects
Occupations
Material types
Using the collection
Location
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American LiteratureStephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Third Floor, Room 320