[46806] Southport - Atkinson Art Gallery : Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow

Atkinson Art Gallery, Lord Street, Southport, Merseyside.

Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow, c1890.

By Lady Elizabeth Butler (1846-1933).

Watercolour and Gouache over pencil.

 

Lady Butler enjoyed huge acclaim for the complex battle scenes she specialised in. Although thrillingly lifelike, they were posed by models and usually painted years after the event. This lone figure of Napoleon after his defeat in 1812 was probably a study for a larger composition.

 

From 1862 Lady Elizabeth Butler began her studies of art in Italy, then in 1866 she went to South Kensington, London where she enrolled at the Female School of Art. Moving to Florence in 1869 where she studied under Giuseppe Bellucci and attended the Accademia di Belle Arti. She often signed her works as Mimi Thompson.

 

Famous for her paintings of battle scenes, Lady Elizabeth Butler was a remarkable artist, being one of only a few 19th century women to acquire fame for their historic paintings. Prior to her fame as a battle scene artists she had focussed on religious subjects, but in 1870 she was inspired by the works of Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier and Edouard Detaille, from then on she changed her focus to depicting heroic actions of soldiers of the ranks. In her 1922 autobiography she wrote about her military paintings: "I never painted for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism."

 

Born at Villa Claremont in Lausanne, Switzerland, her other works include the Crimean War and the Battle of Waterloo, The Roll Call (purchased by Queen Victoria) and The Defence of Rorke's Drift.

 

Her marriage to the distinguished British Army Lieutenant-General Sir William Francis Butler in 1877 resulted in six children, and a new era in her life as she travelled the British Empire. During their empire travels both she and her husband started to believe that the empire rulers of Britain and Europe may not provide the most positive experience for those whose land they ruled over. Even so, she continued to paint scenes showing the valour of the ordinary British soldier. Although she herself never witnessed war, she achieved more than any woman before or during her time in this field of art.

 

On her husband's retirement from the army, they moved to Bansha Castle, County Tipperary, Ireland. During the Irish Civil War a collection of watercolours she had created from their time in Palestine were moved to Gormanston Castle for safe keeping, later they were moved to London. Ironically they were almost all destroyed during the German Blitz of London.

 

Lady Butler was widowed in 1910, passing away herself in 1933.

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