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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nPerhaps less well known is that the name of the artist is Lady Elizabeth Butler, the subject of a recently published biography written by Dr Catherine Wynne. It is remarkable to learn that at the height of Lady Butler\u2019s popularity during the 1870s, policemen would have to be stationed to manage crowds at the exhibition of one of her most celebrated paintings at The Royal Academy. The book is of course a detailed study of the rich tapestry of Lady Butler\u2019s art but also provides an insight into some of the societal and political flows during the second half of the 19th century and the first part of the last. Beautifully mounted and the art images exquisitely reproduced, even without detailed prior knowledge of the subject matter, the book is a highly accessible and engaging read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1874, Elizabeth Thompson had first come to national prominence after her painting \u201cCalling the Roll after an Engagement, Crimea (The Roll Call)\u201d was displayed at the Royal Academy. The painting is a remarkable study of wounded and war weary Grenadier Guardsmen gathering for a post battle roll call. As a result of that showing. Elizabeth became the talk of fashionable society and the painting was taken to Buckingham Palace for Queen Victoria to \u201cgaze at\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a massive breakthrough into the almost exclusively male dominated world of war art. A feature of Elizabeth Thompson\u2019s work over the succeeding years were compassionate studies of the traumatic effects of conflict, depicting scenes from the Napoleonic and Crimean wars, images of which many of us will be familiar with. Three to mention in this respect are: \u201cThe 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras\u201d, \u201cBalaclava\u201d and \u201cThe Return from Inkerman\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1878, Elizabeth married Lieutenant General Sir William Butler and her first painting as Lady Butler was \u201cListed for the Connaught Rangers: Recruiting in Ireland\u201d, a fantastically executed painting that has socio-political connotations. This was followed by \u201cRemnants of an Army Jellalabad, January 13th 1842\u201d, which was displayed while Britain was at war in Afghanistan, one of a series of imperial wars during this period. While her husband was posted to South Africa, Lady Butler showed her latest painting \u201cThe defence of Rorke\u2019s Drift, January 1879\u201d to both Queen Victoria and Prime Minister Disraeli, and this was followed in 1881 by the highly dramatic and feted \u201cScotland for Ever!\u201d which celebrated the Scots Greys\u2019 role in the victory at Waterloo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the early 1880s, Lady Butler had enjoyed a period of extraordinary success but it seemed clear that the public now wanted a more glorified view of empire building, which led to some personal discomfiture. To add to these frustrations, even after a number of well-regarded paintings since her marriage, she was still widely referred to as \u2018Elizabeth Thompson\u2019 and closely defined by \u201cThe Roll Call\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1885, Elizabeth joined William in Egypt, before moving to France, and then to Ireland \u2013 and this latter period included the completion of one of her more pointed political paintings, \u201cEvicted\u201d, which was completed in 1890. Over the following years, her output tended to move from explicit imperial themes towards the depiction of historical battles. In early 1899, Lady Butler travelled to South Africa to join her husband, who had been appointed there as Commander of British Forces but he was to leave that position in August before the outbreak of the Boer War \u2013 he would later be unjustly criticised by elements of the \u201cpro war\u201d press. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1905, following Sir William Butler\u2019s retirement from the army, the couple moved with their family to Bansha Castle in Tipperary near to William\u2019s ancestral home \u2013 and Elizabeth would most definitely now become completely isolated from the London centric art world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nFollowing the outbreak of war in 1914, Lady Butler continued her work on military themes including exhibiting a series of watercolours of men who had been awarded the Victoria Cross. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The depiction of the \u2018Footballers at Loos\u2019 was shown alongside other war scenes at the \u2018Khaki\u2019 exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in May 1917 with all proceeds going to the Officers\u2019 Families Fund. By the time Lady Butler came to look at the exploits of Frank Edwards and his comrades, it was certainly true that she had long since fallen out of favour with the cognoscenti but Catherine Wynne notes that, \u201cthroughout her career, her loyalty to the ordinary soldier remained steadfast.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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At the end of the war, Lady Butler remained in Ireland and would come face to face with the evolving political realities across the country. She continued with her work, which included the \u201cCharge of the Egyptian Camel Corps\u201d, badly damaged in fighting at Bansha during the Civil War, \u201cThe Retreat from Mons: The Royal Horse Guards\u201d in 1927 and \u201cA Detachment of Cavalry in Flanders\u201d in 1929.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elizabeth Butler died at the age of 86 in October 1933. A remarkable life indeed and, after absorbing her fascinating story and re-viewing her fantastically moving artwork, I do indeed share Catherine Wynne\u2019s comment that Lady Butler’s life should most certainly be celebrated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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