Elizabeth Southerden Thompson (3 November 1846 – 2 October 1933), later known as Lady Butler, was a British painter who specialised in painting scenes from British military campaigns and battles, including the Crimean War and the Napoleonic Wars. Her notable works include The Roll Call (purchased by Queen Victoria), The Defence of Rorke's Drift, and Scotland Forever! (showing the Scots Greys at Waterloo). 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."

She married British Army officer William Butler, becoming Lady Butler after he was knighted. Butler later wrote that after the opening of the Summer Exhibition, she awoke to find herself famous. Her elder daughter, Elizabeth, married Lt.-Col. Randolph Albert Fitzhardinge Kingscote (6 Feb 18678 Dec 1940) on 24 July 1903 and her younger daughter, Eileen, married Viscount Gormanston (16 July 18797 November 1925) on 26 October 1911.

Later life and death

On her husband's retirement from the Army, she moved to Ireland, where they lived at Bansha Castle, County Tipperary. Lady Butler showed pictures at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1892. Among the paintings that she took with her to County Tipperary was a set of water-colours that she had painted while stationed with her husband in Palestine. During the Irish Civil War these were transferred to her daughter for safekeeping at Gormanston Castle, then Viscount Gormanston's London townhouse, where almost all were destroyed during the Second World War.

Widowed in 1910, Lady Butler lived at Bansha Castle until 1922, when she took up residence with the youngest of her six children, Eileen, Viscountess Gormanston, at Gormanston Castle, County Meath. She died there in 1933 shortly before her 87th birthday being interred at nearby Stamullen churchyard. whilst the 2023 play Modest covered her life from Roll Call to her rejection as an Associate of the Royal Academy.

Paintings

thumb|300px|[[Scotland Forever!, 1881, Leeds Art Gallery]]

thumb|right|300px|The Return from [[Inkerman (1877), Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull]]

thumb|300px|[[Remnants of an Army (1879), Tate Britain, showing the arrival of assistant surgeon William Brydon at Jalalabad on 13 January 1842.]]

<!-- Chronological list of paintings by Thompson-Butler -->

  • The Magnificat (1872)
  • Missing (1873)
  • Calling the Roll After An Engagement, Crimea (or The Roll Call (1874) – Royal Collection; Buckingham Palace)
  • Missed (1874)
  • The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras (1875 – National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne)
  • Balaclava (1876 – City of Manchester Art Gallery)
  • The Return from Inkerman (1877 – Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull)
  • Listed for the Connaught Rangers (1878 – Bury Art Museum)
  • Remnants of an Army (1879 – Tate Britain)
  • The Defence of Rorke's Drift (1880 – Royal Collection; Windsor Castle)
  • Scotland Forever! (1881 – Leeds Art Gallery)
  • Tel-el-Kebir (1885)
  • To the Front: French Cavalry Leaving a Breton City on the Declaration of War (1888–89 – Private Collection)
  • Evicted (1890 – The Irish Folklore Commission University College Dublin)
  • The Camel Corps (1891)
  • Halt in a Forced March (1892 – Shropshire Military Museum, Shrewsbury Castle)
  • The Rescue of the Wounded (1895)
  • The Dawn of Waterloo (1895 – National Army Museum, formerly Falkland Palace)
  • Steady, the Drums and Fifes! (1897 – HM The Queen; 57th Middlesex Regiment, now in the collection of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment)
  • Floreat Etona! (1898 – Private Collection)
  • Dawn at Waterloo (1898 – Private Collection)
  • The Morning of Talavera (1898)
  • The Colours: Advance of the Scots Guards at the Alma (1899 – Scots Guards)
  • Within Sound of Guns (1903 – painted at Bansha Castle; Staff College, Camberley)
  • Stand Fast Craigellachie (1903 – National War Museum Scotland)
  • Rescue of Wounded, Afghanistan (1905 – Staff College, Camberley)
  • In vain! Rally for a last charge of the Cuirassiers (1912 – Private Collection)
  • The 16th Light Dragoons saving the remnants of the Union Brigade (1915 – Private Collection)
  • A Man of Kent (1919 − in the collection of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment)
  • On the Morrow of Talavera (1923 – Private Collection)
  • The Charge of The Dorset Yeomanry at Agagia, 26th February, 1916 (1917 – The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester)
  • A Lament in the Desert (1925 – Private Collection)
  • In the Retreat from Mons: The Royal Horse Guards (1927 – Royal Hospital, Chelsea)
  • A Detachment of Cavalry in Flanders (1929 – Private Collection)

<gallery mode="packed">

File:Roll-call.JPG|Calling the Roll After An Engagement, Crimea (1874), Royal Collection

File:Lady Butler Missed.JPG|Missed (1874), private collection

File:Butler Lady Quatre Bras 1815.jpg|The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras (1875), <br>National Gallery of Victoria, Australia

File:Balaclava (1876) Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler.jpg|Balaclava (1876), Manchester Art Gallery

File:Listed for the Connaught Rangers.png|Listed for the Connaught Rangers (1878), Bury Art Museum

File:Elizabeth Southerden Butler, Lady Butler (1846-1933) - The Defence of Rorke's Drift - RCIN 405897 - Royal Collection.jpg|The Defence of Rorke's Drift (1880), <br>Royal Collection

Image:Thompson laingsnek.jpg|Floreat Etona! (1882), private collection

File:Dawn of Waterloo.png|Dawn of Waterloo (1895), National Army Museum

File:Lady Elizabeth Butler - steady the drums and fifes.jpg|Steady, the Drums and Fifes! (1895), PWRR Museum, Dover Castle

</gallery>

Literature

Works by

  • Letters from the Holy Land (London: A & C Black, 1903).
  • From Sketch-book and Diary (London: A & C Black, 1909).
  • An Autobiography (London: Constable & Co., Ltd., 1923).
  • Autobiography (Sevenoaks: Fisher Press, 1993).

Works about

  • Fillimore, Francis. – "Britain's Battle Painter: Lady Butler and Her Art". – New England Home Magazine. – Vol. XII, No. 13, September 1900, pp.&nbsp;579–587 (also published in Windsor Magazine. – Vol. XI, December 1899 – May 1900, pp.&nbsp;643–652)
  • Gladwell, Malcolm. (2016). "The Lady Vanishes". – Episode 1, Season 1, Revisionist History Podcast. http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/01-the-lady-vanishes
  • Gormanston, Eileen. (1953). – A Little Kept. – New York: Sheed and Ward
  • Harrington, Peter. (1993). – British Artists and War: The Face of Battle in Paintings and Prints, 1700–1914. – London: Greenhill. –
  • Lalumia, Matthew Paul. – "Lady Elizabeth Thompson Butler in the 1870s". – Woman's Art Journal. – Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring–Summer 1983, pp.&nbsp;9–14
  • Lee, Michael. – "A Centenary of Military Painting". – Army Quarterly. – October 1967
  • Meynell, Wilfrid. (1898). – The Life and Work of Lady Butler. – London: The Art Annual
  • O'Byrne, M. K. – "Lady Butler". – Irish Monthly. – December 1950
  • Usherwood, Paul. – "Elizabeth Thompson Butler: a case of tokenism." – Woman's Art Journal. – Vol. 11, Fall–Winter 1990–91, 14–15
  • Usherwood, Paul, and Jenny Spencer-Smith, (1987). – Lady Butler, Battle Artist, 1846–1933. – Gloucester: Sutton. –
  • 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)
  • Chapter 3, The Victorian Artist by Julie Codell, 2012, Cambridge UP.
  • Chapter 5, Masculinities in Victorian Painting by Joseph Kestner, 1995, Scolar Press.

References

  • Excerpt on Thompson's career from 'The Britain that Women Made', a BBC documentary by Amanda Vickery