Mildred Anne Butler

Mildred Anne Butler RA RWS (11 January 1858 – 11 October 1941) was an Irish artist, who worked in watercolour and oil of landscape, genre and animal subjects.

Butler was born and spent most of her life in Kilmurry, Thomastown, County Kilkenny and was associated with the Newlyn School of painters.

Mildred Anne's en plein air style is dominated by the theme of nature and reflects scenes of domesticity around the family home in Kilmurry.

[2] Butler's quirky titles such as Ancient Rubbish, A Tit-Bit and Chucked; Green Eyed Jealousy: Ravens amongst trees show the artist's playful sensibility.

[3][4] Her father, Henry Butler, was an amateur artist favouring subjects from nature he encountered on journeys abroad, in particular exotic plants and animals.

[1][5] Butler's father Henry may have encouraged her to paint in her youth but her artistic training began in London in the late 1880s with the watercolourist Paul Jacob Naftel, whom she credited for her understanding of watercolours.

[1][5] Butler like her friend Rose Barton, who also studied under Naftel, did not follow his choice of landscape, instead she devoted herself to cattle, birds, and flower gardens.

[1][5] Newlyn at that time was the centre for a group of artists who were interested in plein-air subjects, many of whom had previously studied in France.

[1] She was attached to the Newlyn School, and Norman Garstin's studio in particular alongside contemporaries such as Walter Osborne and Sir John Lavery.

[8] Butler continuously exhibited throughout her career and proved herself to be a keen business woman capable of marketing her watercolours successfully with patrons such as Queen Mary of Teck and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.

[10] Her range of work was dominated by the theme of nature and her subject matter reflected the scenes of domesticity surrounding her Kilmurry home.

[1] Butler painted en plein air with instils her work with animated freshness, which she depicts with a degree of realism and expression.

[20] An Exhibition of Butler's work was held by the Kilkenny Art Gallery Society at Kilkenny Castle in June 1981 which included pieces such as Where the Grass Grows Green (1904)[14][21][22] It was further exhibited at the Bank of Ireland, Baggot Street, Dublin in August 1981 and at Christies, King Street, London in September 1981.

^ The Royal Academy in London refused to show artists who painted in the French style, young painters had to form their own society in order to exhibit.