Mildred Anne Butler — Watercolours of the Irish Countryside

Irish Artist · 1858–1941

Mildred Anne Butler

The woman who painted her own garden — and made a quiet corner of Kilkenny immortal.

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Part of our full Irish Art Prints collection.

Shades of Evening by Mildred Anne Butler

Shades of Evening — rooks gathering at dusk; painted at Kilmurry, and now in the National Gallery of Ireland.

The Story

Most great painters chase the world. Mildred Anne Butler barely left home — and found everything she needed in the garden outside her window. For some fifty years she painted the birds, the light, the weather and the quiet drama of one country house in Co. Kilkenny, and in doing so she became one of the finest watercolourists Ireland ever produced.

She was born on 11 January 1858 at Kilmurry, near Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny — the youngest daughter of Captain Henry Butler of the Mountgarret branch of the Butlers, himself a capable amateur artist and naturalist, from whom she likely caught the habit. She studied at the Westminster School of Art in London, took animal painting under W. Frank Calderon and worked in Paris under Henri Gervex, travelled through France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy from 1885, and trained under the watercolourist Paul Jacob Naftel, whom she credited for her mastery of the medium. She spent the summers of 1894 and 1895 at Newlyn in Cornwall, in Norman Garstin's classes, absorbing the Newlyn painters' commitment to working directly from nature, out of doors.

But it was Kilmurry that made her. Where her teacher painted grand landscapes, Butler turned to what was close at hand: doves and hens, cattle in a wet field, rooks wheeling over bare trees, the flowerbeds and rooftops of her own home. She worked en plein air, with astonishing accuracy — she is said to have kept taxidermy birds to get their plumage exactly right — and a tenderness that never tipped into sentimentality.

Recognition came, and it was real. In 1896 her watercolour The Morning Bath was bought for the nation by the trustees of the Chantrey Bequest and is at Tate today — one of the first works by a woman ever bought under it. That same year she was elected an associate of the Royal Watercolour Society; full membership took another forty-one years, arriving in 1937. She accepted a commission from Queen Mary in 1922, and is represented in Queen Mary's Dolls' House.

She died on 11 October 1941, aged eighty-three, in the same house in which she had been born. Her work is a quiet miracle: proof that you do not need to travel the world to paint something that lasts — you need only to look, closely and lovingly, at what is already in front of you.

She was very nearly lost. Forty years after her death the contents of her studio came up at Christie's and around four hundred works reappeared at once — a former director of the National Gallery of Ireland called it the phenomenon of the century. The story is told in Mildred Anne Butler: the garden at Kilmurry.

Timeline

  • 1858 — Born 11 January at Kilmurry, near Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny.
  • 1880s — Studies at the Westminster School of Art, London, and in Paris under Henri Gervex.
  • 1885 — Travels through France, Switzerland and Italy.
  • late 1880s — Trains under watercolourist Paul Jacob Naftel; turns to gardens, birds and animals.
  • 1894–95 — Summers at Newlyn, Cornwall, in Norman Garstin's classes.
  • 1896 — The Morning Bath bought for the nation by the trustees of the Chantrey Bequest, and now at Tate; elected an associate of the Royal Watercolour Society.
  • 1905 on — Makes regular painting trips to Aix-les-Bains, France.
  • 1937 — Elected a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society.
  • 1941 — Dies 11 October at Kilmurry, aged 83, in the house where she was born.
  • 1981 — The contents of her studio are sold at Christie's; the National Gallery of Ireland buys seven watercolours and her reputation is remade.

Where She Painted

Her world was small and deep — the garden at Kilmurry, with the occasional venture south to Kerry. Click a pin to see the work.

Kilmurry, Co. Kilkenny · Co. Kerry — an Irish life painted close to home.

Featured Works

View all Butler prints

Collector's Guide

Start with Shades of Evening — her masterpiece, rooks gathering over bare trees at dusk, and one of the best-loved Irish watercolours of its era. From there, explore her tender studies of birds and garden life, like A Preliminary Investigation and Autumn Days. Her Kilkenny scenes, such as Rooftops, Thomastown, root her art firmly in the place she loved.

The Butler Lover's Gift Guide

Three of her most charming works — perfect for lovers of gardens, birds and the Irish countryside.

Discover Similar Artists

Rose Barton — her friend and fellow watercolourist under the same teacher. · Frederic William Burton — master of the Irish watercolour. · John Lavery — a giant of the same generation.

Or browse the full Irish Art Prints collection.