- Elizabeth Thompson
Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler (3 November 1846 - 2 October 1933) was a British painter, one of the few female painters to achieve fame for
history painting s, especially military battle scenes, at the end of that tradition. She was married to Lieutenant General Sir William Butler.Biography
Born at Villa Claremont in
Lausanne, Switzerland , she specialized in painting scenes from British military campaigns and battles, including theCrimean War and theBattle of Waterloo . "The Roll Call" (purchased by Queen Victoria), "The Defence of Rorke's Drift", and "Scotland Forever" featuring theScots Greys (inLeeds City Art Gallery) are among her better-known works. She wrote about her military paintings in an autobiography published in 1922: "I never painted for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism".Usherwood, Paul, and Jenny Spencer-Smith, (1987). - "Lady Butler, Battle Artist, 1846-1933". - Gloucester: Sutton. - ISBN 0862993555] [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jbutler.htm Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler)] - Spartacus Educational Schoolnet. - Retrieved: 2005-05-01] Obituary: [http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/obituary/butler.htm Lady Butler. A Famous Military Painter] . - "The Times ". - (c/o Victorian Art in Britain). - October 3, 1933. - Retrieved: 2005-05-01]She was the daughter of Thomas James Thompson (1812 - 1881) and his second wife Christiana Weller (1825 - 1910). Her sister was the noted essayist and poet
Alice Meynell . Elizabeth began receiving art instruction in 1862, while growing up inItaly . In 1866 she went toSouth Kensington ,London and entered the Female School of Art. She became aRoman Catholic along with the rest of the family after they moved toFlorence in 1869. While in Florence, under the tutelage of the artist Giuseppe Bellucci (1827 - 1882), Elizabeth attended theAccademia di Belle Arti . She signed her works as E.B.; Elizth. Thompson or Mimi Thompson.Initially she concentrated on religious subjects like "The Magnificat" (1872), but upon going to
Paris in 1870 she was exposed to battle scenes fromJean Louis Ernest Meissonier andÉdouard Detaille , and switched her focus to war paintings. With the painting "Missing" (1873) aFranco-Prussian War battle scene, depicting the common solders' suffering and heroism, she earned her first submission to theRoyal Academy . After "The Roll Call" was shown in 1874 at the Academy, she became a nineteenth century celebrity, due to the paintings' immense popularity. As the paintings toured Europe, along with photographs of Elizabeth, she gained even more notice because people found out that she was both young and pretty, something normally not associated with painters of battle scenes. It also helped that during this time there was an incredible amount of Victorian pride and romanticism for the growingBritish Empire .Her career and fame peaked with her 11 June 1877 marriage to Sir William Francis Butler (1838 - 1910), a distinguished officer of the
British Army , fromTipperary inIreland . Not only was this beauty now married, breaking the heart of many a young man, but now she would travel to the far reaches of the Empire with her husband and raise their five children. During this time she also came under the influence of her Irish husband's beliefs that the colonial imperialism ofGreat Britain and other European powers may not be in the best interest of the native people in far-off lands, but continued to paint scenes showing the valour of the ordinary British soldier.On her husband's retirement from the army, she moved with him to
Ireland , where they lived atBansha Castle,County Tipperary . She was widowed in 1910, but continued to live at Bansha until 1922, when she took up residence with her daughter (one of six children), Eileen, Viscountess Gormanston, at Gormanston Castle,County Meath . She died there shortly before her 87th birthday and was interred at nearby Stamullen graveyard.Paintings
Chronological list of paintings by Thompson-Butler
* "The Magnificat" (1872)
* "Missing" (1873)
* "Calling the Roll After An Engagement, Crimea" (or "The Roll Call" (1874) - H.M. The Queen;Buckingham Palace )
* "The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras " (1875 –National Gallery of Victoria ,Melbourne )
* "Balaclava" (1876 – City ofManchester Art Gallery )
* "Missed" (1876)
* "The Return from Inkerman" (1877 - Ferens Art Gallery,Kingston upon Hull )
* "The Remnants of an Army" (1879 –Tate Gallery )
* "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" (1879 –Bury Art Gallery)
* "The Defence of Rorke's Drift" (1880 - H.M The Queen;Windsor Castle )
* "Scotland Forever!" (1881 –Leeds City Art Gallery)
* "Tel-el-Kebir" (1885)
* "A Lament in the Desert" (Private Collection)
* "Evicted" (1890 - The Irish Folklore CommissionUniversity College Dublin )
* "The Camel Corps" (1891)
* "Halt in a Forced March" (1892)
* "The Rescue of the Wounded" (1895)
* "Steady the Drums and Fifes" (1896 - H.M. The Queen; 57th Regiment, The Middlesex)
* "Floreat Etona" (1898 - Private Collection)
* "Dawn at Waterloo" (1898 - Private Collection)
* "The Morning of Talavera" (1898)
* "Within Sound of Guns" (painted at Bansha Castle; British Army Staff College)Literature
Works by
* 1903. - "Letters from the Holy Land". - London: A. & C. Black
* 1909. - "From Sketch-book and Diary". - London: A. & C. Black
* 1922. - "An Autobiography". - London: Constable & Co., Ltd.
* 1992. - "Autobiography". - Sevenoaks: Fisher Press. - ISBN 1874037086Works about
* Gormanston, Eileen. (1953). - "A Little I Kept". - New York: Sheed and Ward
* Lee, Michael. - "A Centenary of Military Painting". - "Army Quarterly". - October 1967
* O'Byrne, M. K. - "Lady Butler". - "Irish Monthly". - December 1950
* Usherwood, Paul, and Jenny Spencer-Smith, (1987). - "Lady Butler, Battle Artist, 1846-1933". - Gloucester: Sutton. - ISBN 0862993555
* Walker, J. Crompton. (1927). - "Irish Life & Landscape". - Dublin: Talbot Press
* "Irish Arts Review". - "The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibitors 1826-1990". - Volume 4 Number 4: Winter 1987. (Calne 1991)References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.