Lady Butler

Biography

(1846-1933)
Lady Elizabeth Southerden Butler was encouraged to pursue a career as an artist by her parents. She studied at the South Kensington School of Art for two years and attended classes in Florence and Rome in the vacations. She had a flair for lightning sketches of men and horses and was soon working these up into full paintings. She first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1873 with her painting ‘Missing'. She became famous overnight the following year when a Manchester businessman commissioned her to paint a large picture of a Crimean roll-call. The picture was entitled ‘Calling the Roll after an Engagement' but she is probably best known for her magnificent ‘Charge of the Light Brigade'.