PAINTINGS of her famous garden at Kilmurry, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny by Mildred Anne Butler are included in Christie’s auction in London next Wednesday.
Butler, who was born in 1848, was an accomplished Irish painter best-known for her pictures of gardens, landscapes and domestic scenes. Her paintings hang in many public collections in Britain and Ireland including the Tate, the Hugh Lane Gallery and the National Gallery of Ireland.
She attracted royal patronage and her miniature watercolour of crows hangs in Queen Mary's Dolls' House at Windsor Castle. Following her death in 1941, many of her paintings stayed at Kilmurry and were inherited by her cousin Mrs Doreen Archer-Houblon, a distinguished horsewoman who taught the present Queen of England how to ride side saddle. When Mrs Archer-Houblon died, the collection was shipped to London to be sold at Christie's in 1981. Individual pictures occasionally re-surface for re-sale and are keenly sought by collectors in Britain and Ireland. Four watercolours will go under the hammer including My Garden:The Gate From The Herbaceous Garden, Kilmurry, County Kilkenny(£6,000-£10,000).
Other Irish pictures in the sale include a set of five newly discovered sketches of horse racing by Jack B Yeats, And Then He Won(£20,000-$30,000)
* Victorian and British Impressionist art sale, Christie’s, London, Wednesday, June 15th
