(no subject)
Today's ODNB Life of the Day: Lady Butler, military painter (nee Elizabeth Thompson, sister of the poet Alice Meynell):
Her first successful Royal Academy submission, Missing (exh. 1873)-a scene of the suffering of ordinary soldiers in the aftermath of a battle in the Franco-Prussian War-was an exercise in this manner. The next year, the lessons she had learned in France were applied to a British military subject, Calling the Roll after an Engagement, Crimea (exh. RA, 1874; Royal Collection). ‘The Roll Call’, as it quickly became known, proved to be one of the most popular paintings of the nineteenth century: at the academy, a policeman had to be stationed in front of it for its protection.
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[M]arriage on 11 June 1877 to an up-and-coming army officer, Sir William Francis Butler (1838-1910). This brought in its train the duties of child-rearing (she had five children) and the requirement to travel to distant parts of the globe. It also encouraged her to continue with her bleak, untriumphalist approach when tackling subjects drawn from contemporary colonial wars at a time when public taste was for scenes of imperial conquest. Because of his Catholic Irish background William Butler became increasingly critical of Britain's ‘imperial mission’ and appears to have encouraged her to refrain from glorying in the defeat of ill-equipped native troops in works such as The Defence of Rorke's Drift, January 22nd, 1879 (exh. RA, 1880); Royal Collection) and ‘After the Battle’: arrival of Lord Wolseley and staff at the bridge of Tel-el-Kebir at the close of action (exh. RA, 1885; priv. coll.).
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Lady Butler has a dual claim to fame. She pioneered a new, more realistic depiction of warfare in British painting, one which was to prove immensely influential at the end of the nineteenth century. And she briefly enjoyed critical and popular success of such magnitude that, for a while, it seemed a new era for women artists in Britain was about to dawn.
A selection of her works is viewable here.