Educated at Trinity College Dublin, and a member of the University Philosophical Society, John Butler Yeats began his career as a lawyer and devilled briefly with Isaac Butt before he took up painting in 1867 and studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art.

After John Butler Yeats returned to Ireland in 1881, he began to exhibit paintings at the Royal Hibernian Academy, which elected him a member (RHA) in 1892.

It is clear that he had no trouble getting commissions as his sketches and oils are found in private homes in Ireland, England and America.

[3] In October 1909 he moved into his final home, a boarding house run by the Petitpas sisters which was located at 317 West 29th Street.

Yeats married Susan Pollexfen (13 July 1841 – 3 January 1900) on 10 September 1863 at St. John's Church, Sligo.