13
Irish Women Artists 1870 - 1970
Summer 2014
9. Mildred Anne Butler RWS (1858 - 1941)
The Garden Cart
Watercolour, 35 x 51cm
Signed
__________________________________________________________
A privileged upbringing allowed Mildred Anne Butler to travel to London to study under Paul
Jacob Naftel (1817-91) and later to Paris where she joined the studio of Henri Gervex (1852-
1929) for a time. She exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1888 and in 1890 with the Royal Water
Colour Society of Ireland. She was included in the first exhibition of the Belfast Art Society,
showed five works at the RHA and in 1896 had the rare honour of being included in the Royal
Academy annual show where her presence was vastly outnumbered by those of male artists.
Butler’s work was represented at Hugh Lane’s exhibition at Guildhall in London in 1904, and three
years later had a show with Percy French, Claude Hayes and Bingham McGuinness at the New
Dudley Gallery.
