Mildred Anne Butler, RWS (1858 - 1941)
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Mildred Anne Butler, RWS (1858 - 1941) "Peacocks, Kilmurry" Watercolour, 4” x 7”
Irish artist, Mildred Anne Butler was born in 1858. She came from an artistic background, her father, Captain Edward Butler, being a keen watercolourist. She lived for most of her life at her family home, Kilmurry, outside Thomastown in Co. Kilkenny, and the house and gardens became her chief source of inspiration, for her watercolour paintings of flowers, and landscapes with birds and animals. In 1885 she travelled throughout Europe, visiting France, Switzerland and Italy with her sketchbook. The following year she was in London and worked with fellow Irish artist, Rose Barton (1856 - 1929) under Paul Jacob Naftel (1817 -91). She studied with Naftel, for the next three years, and even when she moved back to Ireland, she would still send her watercolour paintings from her home in Kilmurry to London for him to inspect. She first began to exhibit with the Dudley Art Gallery in London in 1888, and in 1890 she exhibited for the first time with the Watercolour Society of Ireland. Her paintings were also included in a book of watercolours given by the Society of Lady Artists to Princess Mary, later Queen Mary on her marriage to the Duke of York. Queen Mary later bought a watercolour by the artist.
In 1894 she visited Paris and later that year she travelled with May Guinness (1863 - 1955) to Newlyn in Cornwall where she studied under the Irish painter Norman Garstin (1847 - 1926) who ran summer painting classes in Newlyn. She also returned there the following summer. It is quite likely that Garstin, who knew Degas and had written about Manet, introduced Mildred Anne Butler to the work of the French Impressionists. In 1896 the purchase by the Chanterey Bequest of her painting "The Morning Bath", which she had shown at the Royal Academy in London, was a major achievement, and at the time, a rare honour for a female artist. Also that year she was made an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, but she had to wait forty-one years before she was awarded full membership.
As well as attending the Westminster School of Art, in London, she also spent a term in the studio of the British artist, William Frank Calderon (1865 - 1943). Although she rarely painted in England, she exhibited there often, being one of the artists selected by Hugh Lane for his exhibition of Irish artists in the Guildhall of London Corporation in 1904. That same year, along with fellow Irish watercolour artist Helen O'Hara, she was made an honourary member of the Belfast Art Society. In 1907 she was included in an exhibition at the New Dudley Art Gallery, London alongside fellow Irish artists, William Percy French, Claude Hayes and William Bingham McGuinness. She also exhibited her paintings, regularly at the Royal Academy, London. During her career she only ever exhibited five paintings at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, the first in 1891 and the last in 1904.
In addition to painting landscape scenes in and around the family home, Kilmurry, Mildred Anne Butler also regularly holidayed in the south of Ireland at the seaside town of Tramore, and painted there. From 1905 onwards she often travelled to France and painted in the town of Aix les Bains. She painted little in the last ten years of her life and she died on the 11th of October 1941. Her work is now housed in most of the major public art collections in Ireland and England, including the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, the Ulster Museum, Belfast and the Tate Gallery, London. A major retrospective exhibition of her paintings was held in Ireland at the Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork in 1987.
In 1894 she visited Paris and later that year she travelled with May Guinness (1863 - 1955) to Newlyn in Cornwall where she studied under the Irish painter Norman Garstin (1847 - 1926) who ran summer painting classes in Newlyn. She also returned there the following summer. It is quite likely that Garstin, who knew Degas and had written about Manet, introduced Mildred Anne Butler to the work of the French Impressionists. In 1896 the purchase by the Chanterey Bequest of her painting "The Morning Bath", which she had shown at the Royal Academy in London, was a major achievement, and at the time, a rare honour for a female artist. Also that year she was made an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, but she had to wait forty-one years before she was awarded full membership.
As well as attending the Westminster School of Art, in London, she also spent a term in the studio of the British artist, William Frank Calderon (1865 - 1943). Although she rarely painted in England, she exhibited there often, being one of the artists selected by Hugh Lane for his exhibition of Irish artists in the Guildhall of London Corporation in 1904. That same year, along with fellow Irish watercolour artist Helen O'Hara, she was made an honourary member of the Belfast Art Society. In 1907 she was included in an exhibition at the New Dudley Art Gallery, London alongside fellow Irish artists, William Percy French, Claude Hayes and William Bingham McGuinness. She also exhibited her paintings, regularly at the Royal Academy, London. During her career she only ever exhibited five paintings at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin, the first in 1891 and the last in 1904.
In addition to painting landscape scenes in and around the family home, Kilmurry, Mildred Anne Butler also regularly holidayed in the south of Ireland at the seaside town of Tramore, and painted there. From 1905 onwards she often travelled to France and painted in the town of Aix les Bains. She painted little in the last ten years of her life and she died on the 11th of October 1941. Her work is now housed in most of the major public art collections in Ireland and England, including the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, the Ulster Museum, Belfast and the Tate Gallery, London. A major retrospective exhibition of her paintings was held in Ireland at the Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork in 1987.