Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Elizabeth Southerden (née Thompson), Lady Butler (1846-1933), Military painter; wife of Sir William Francis Butler

Self-portraits
By other artists
Undated portraits
Photographs

Self-portraitsback to top


1866
?Oils, three-quarter-length, at easel with painting of soldiers; priv. coll. See Cheney, Faxon & Russo 2000, p.155 (not ill.).
Possibly same as a self-portrait, oil on board, 390 x 260mm, signed, inscr. and dated ‘[18]66’; Phillips, 26 June 1984 (172).

1868
Pencil drawing, half-length, three-quarters to right, with sketchbook; coll. Mrs Marie Kingscote Scott. Repr. Usherwood & Spencer-Smith 1987, no.10.

1869
Oil on card; see NPG 5314.

Pen and ink sketch, inscr. ‘My Studio. Florence 1869’, half-length, on terrace; untraced. Repr. Butler 1923, facing p.58.


By other artistsback to top


publ. 1874
Design by (Edward) Linley Sambourne for Essence of Parliament, whole-length in group; untraced. Repr. Punch, 8 Aug. 1874, p.55.
See also Marks, Millais, Sant.

publ. 1875
Design by Leslie Ward (‘Spy’), half-length to left, with sketchbook; untraced. Repr. as wood engr. Graphic, vol.11, no.284, 8 May 1875, cover.

Design by (Edward) Linley Sambourne, At the Academy – “A Picture Puzzle.”, head only, to front, attached to a large branch with leaves, with others; untraced. Repr. Punch, 12 May 1875, p.222; Herkomer 1910–11, vol.1, facing p.82; McMaster 2008, p.66, fig.7; McMaster 2009, p.27, fig.14.
See also Alma-Tadema, Calderon, Du Maurier, Fildes, Foster, Frith, Goodall, Herkomer, Hodgson, Leighton, Marks, Millais.

Design by (Edward) Linley Sambourne for Academicians and Outsiders – A Battle-piece., whole-length in group; untraced. Repr. Punch, 26 June 1875, p.278.
See also Alma-Tadema, Ansdell, Boughton, Calderon, Cope, Du Maurier, Frith, Herkomer, Horsley, Leighton, Marks, Millais, Orchardson, Sant.

publ. 1877
Portrait (no further details). Repr. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (US ed.), vol.54, 1877, p.170.

publ. 1879
Design by (Edward) Linley Sambourne for Royal Academy Canvas-backs: or, A High (Art) Tide., head attached to body of a duck, to front, riding the crest of a wave in the background, behind Mr Punch; untraced. Repr. Punch, 12 July 1879, p.6; McMaster 2008, p.69, fig.15; and McMaster 2009, p.38, fig.22.
See also Alma-Tadema, Ansdell, Armitage, Boughton, Calderon, Cope, Du Maurier, Fildes, Goodall, Herkomer, Holl, Horsley, Leighton, Marks, Millais, Orchardson, Poynter, Prinsep, Sant, Watts.

publ. 1891
Pen and ink sketch by unidentified artist (?after photograph), head-and-shoulders to left. Repr. as zincograph, Daily Graphic, vol.5, ‘First Birthday Number’, March 1891, p.3.


Undated portraitsback to top


Oil on canvas by Louis William Desanges, head-and-shoulders to left; priv. coll. (Butler descendants).

Pen and ink drawing by Harry Furniss, head-and-shoulders to left; untraced. Repr. Furniss 1923, facing p.92.[1]


Photographsback to top



1874
Albumen cartes-de-visite by Fradelle & Marshall, two known poses:
(a) half-length, full-face, looking straight ahead, arms folded on chairback; colls Getty Images, 3070246; MEPL, London, 10146950.[2] Repr. London Sketch-Book, Sept. 1874, cover. Also repr. in lithograph (with additional background) by Montague Chatterton & Co., Touchstone, 21 Dec. 1878; impression NPG D1156.
This Fradelle & Marshall pose is the primary image for Elizabeth Butler.
Same pose cropped to bust; The Rob Dickins Coll., Watts Gallery, Compton, COMWG2008.22. Repr. Maas 1984, p.73; Bills & Webb 2007, no.58; and wood engr. by R. & E. Taylor, captioned ‘From a Photograph by the Stereoscopic Company’ (sic), cutting inscr. '20 June 1874', NPG SB (Butler).
(b) half-length, head turned three-quarters to left; colls NPG Ax14902; V&A, London, 854-1956, inscr. ’30 September 1874’.

c.1879
Photograph by W. & D. Downey, three-quarter-length, seated to right; MEPL, London, 10072269. Repr. as wood engr. with facsimile signature, MA, 1879, p.257.

publ. 1890
Photograph by J. Hawke, head-and-shoulders to left, with ?medal around neck. Repr. as wood engr., Graphic, 6 Dec. 1890, p.634; as pen and ink thumbnail sketch, Graphic, ‘First Birthday Number’, Dec. 1890, p.3 (supplement); and as halftone by J.S. Virtue & Co., The Years Art 1893 and Q [?Quarterly], 18 Feb. 1893.

c.1893
Photograph by unidentified photographer, three-quarter-length, standing to right, with palette and brushes; coll. Viscount Gormanston. Repr. Usherwood & Spencer-Smith 1987, fig.11.

publ. 1898
Photographs by H. Virtue & Co., whole-length, profile to right, at easel in studio, Dover Castle, two known poses:
(a) whole-length, profile to right; print NAM, London. Repr. as halftone Meynell 1898, p.1; Usherwood & Spencer-Smith 1987, frontispiece; Country Life, 21 May 1987, p.126; and Gillett 1990, p.174, fig.26.
(b) whole-length, three-quarters facing. Repr. as halftone Meynell 1898, p.22; and Fish 1901, p.329.

1914
Photograph by unidentified photographer, whole-length, seated with eldest son Patrick; coll. Mr Rupert Butler. Repr. Usherwood & Spencer-Smith 1987, fig.14.

publ. 1925
Photograph by unidentified photographer, half-length, in hat and veil, at Water Colour Society exhibition [?Dublin]. Repr. Irish Times, 19 May 1925; republ. Irish Times, 5 Oct. 1933 to mark Butler’s death.


Footnotes
1) This drawing is approximately datable to the 1890s by hairstyle. Compare with the photograph by an unidentified photographer, c.1893, above.
2) A public image was needed after the success of the Roll Call in spring 1874: ‘Of course, the photographers began bothering. The idea of my portraits being published in the shop windows was repugnant to me. Nowadays [1923] one is snapshotted whether one likes it or not, but it wasn’t so bad in those days; one’s consent was asked, at any rate. I refused. However, it had to come to that at last. My grandfather simply walked into the shop of the first people that had asked me, in Regent Street [Fradelle & Marshall], and calmly made the appointment. I was so cross on being dragged there that the result was as I expected – a rather harassed and coerced young woman, and the worst of it was that this particular photograph was the one most widely published.’ Butler 1923, p.114.

Carol Blackett-Ord