Born in London in 1871, Yeats spent his later childhood in Sligo. After attending art schools in London and a period in Devon, he returned to Ireland in 1910, moving to Dublin in 1917 where he remained for the rest of his life. Initially Yeats established himself as an illustrator for journals and other publications.

In 1907 he painted his first landscape in oil, which from there onwards remained his main medium. Yeats exhibited regularly nationally and internationally from 1885 onwards, with his first solo show of watercolours at the Clifford Gallery, London in 1897. Exhibitions followed at The Royal Hibernian Academy, in Dublin; The Salon des Independants in Paris, The Armoury Show in New York, the National Gallery, London.

A retrospective was held at the National College of Art, Dublin (1945), Temple Newsam House, Leeds, the Tate Gallery, London (1948), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (1951). Following the artist's death in 1955, major exhibitions have been held worldwide, including a centenery exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (1971), and most recently at Manchester City Art Galleries (1996).