"[A]s time went on circumstances conducted me to the genre militaire, and there I have remained, as regards my principal oil paintings, with few exceptions. My own reading of war — that mysteriously inevitable recurrence throughout the sorrowful history of our world — is that it calls forth the noblest and the basest impulses of human nature." — Autobiography, pp. 46-47
"The first female painter of history to abjure the subject of woman and women, was Elizabeth Thompson, later Butler...." — Pamela Gerrish Nunn, p. 106.
"LADY BUTLER, when she made her name famous as Miss Elizabeth Thompson, the painter of 'The Roll Call,' achieved one of the most sudden among enduring reputations." — Meynell, p. 1.
Left: Lady Butler in her studio, 1898 (Meynell 1). Centre: sketch entitled "Aldershot Manoeuvres, 1895" (Autobiography, p. 234). Right: Detail from The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras (1869).
Biographical Material
Works
Bibliography
Armstrong, Walter. "The Henry Tate Collection, V." The Art-Journal, Vol. 55 (1893): 287-301. HathiTrust, from a copy in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Web. 28 November 2024.
Butler, Elizabeth. An Autobiography. London: Constable, 1922. Internet Archive, from a copy in Robarts Library, University of Toronto. Web. 28 November 2024.
Chilvers, Ian. "Butler, Elizabeth (Lady Butler, née Thompson)." The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009: 97-98.
"Dawn of Waterloo." The "Reveille" in the bivouac of the Scots Greys on the morning of the battle, 1815. National Army Museum. Web. 28 November 2024. https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2021-12-1-1-1
Gormanston, Eileen Butler Preston, Viscountess. A Little I Kept. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1953.
"Lady Butler" (Obituary). The Times. 4 October 1933: 17. Times Digital Archive (subscription needed).
Lambourne, Lionel. Victorian Painting. London and New York: Phaidon, 1999 (see pp. 198-99).
Meynell, Wilfrid. The Life and Work of Lady Butler. London: The Art-Journal, 1898. HathiTrust, from a copy in Princeton University. Web. 28 November 2024.
Nunn, Pamela Gerrish. Problem Pictures: Women and Men in Victorian Painting. Aldershot, Hants.: Scolar Press, 1995.
_____. Victorian Women Artists. London: Women's Press, 1987.
"The Roll Call." The Royal Collection Trust. Web. 28 November 2024. https://www.rct.uk/collection/405915/the-roll-call
Ruskin, John. "Academy Notes, 1875." Complete Works, edited by E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. Vol 14: 263-310. London: George Allen, 1904. Internet Archive, from a copy in the Getty Research Institute. Web. 28 November 2024.
Smith, Alison, David Blayney Brown, and Carol Jacobi, eds. Artist and Empire: Facing Britain's Imperial Past. London: Tate Publishing, 2015.
Trumble, Angus. Love and Death in the Age of Queen Victoria. Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2002.
Usherwood, Paul. "Butler [née Thompson], Elizabeth Southerden, Lady Butler (1846–1933), military painter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 28 November 2024.
_____. “Elizabeth Thompson Butler: The Consequences of Marriage.” Woman’s Art Journal 9, no. 1 (1988): 30–34. https://doi.org/10.2307/1358360
Usherwood, Paul and Jenny Spencer-Smith. Lady Butler, Battle Artist, 1846-1933. Gloucester: Sutton and the National Army Museum, 1987.
Created 19 March 2016
Last modified 28 November 2024