Mildred Anne Butler (1858–1941)

Mildred Anne Butler was born and raised at Kilmurry House, outside Thomastown. With her cousin, another important watercolourist, Ruth Barton, they painted scenes that reflected the privileged but restricted lives of women of their class in the late 19th and early 20^thcenturies. Butler’s watercolours of the gardens at Kilmurry were rarely exhibited, and were only revealed to the public following a sale of the contents of Kilmurry in the 1970s, when they were shown to great critical acclaim. “The modesty and understatement implicit in the title might summarise the artist’s entire approach. She offers much more than that, more even than the richly textured domestic environment that her painting evokes”. Aidan Dunne, from Butler Gallery Collection catalogue.