An Autobiography

Elizabeth Southerden Thompson Butler (Lady Butler)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 560K words
Chapters: 57

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.An Autobiography by Elizabeth ButlerAuthor: Butler, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Southerden Thompson), 1846-1933,Language: English, Class: ND: Fine Arts: Painting, Release Date: Dec 16, 2012

Editor's review

This An Autobiography is the memoir of the British painter Elizabeth Butler (Elizabeth Southerden Thompson Butler, 1846–1933), classified under fine arts and painting. Known for her military-themed paintings, she lived from the late Victorian era into the early twentieth century, and her autobiography records her training in painting, her creative orientation, and how she gained a foothold in a male-dominated art world. As a first-hand account by a participant, the book's appeal lies not in its prose but in how a woman artist narrates her own choices and perseverance, and in what her era thought about art, gender, and profession. The writing is plain, with the restraint and self-possession common to memoirs of that period; reading it feels like listening to an elder recount a life calmly. For art history, women's art history, and the study of nineteenth-century British culture, it is a warm first-hand source; for general readers, it offers a view of how a creator faces outside judgment and self-doubt. Read it selectively with questions in mind; there is no need to finish every page.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century British painting and military-themed art
Readers studying women artists' career paths and gender issues
Biography readers who enjoy artists' autobiographies and memoirs
Humanities students and researchers needing first-hand art history sources

Not a good fit for

Painting students expecting systematic art theory or technique tutorials
General biography readers who prefer tightly plotted, highly dramatic narratives
Readers entirely unfamiliar with the Victorian background who are unwilling to fill in context

Reading tips

First learn the basic background of the nineteenth-century British art world and women's art education; the main text will then read more smoothly.
Read in segments by life stage, and after each part review changes in her creative orientation, taking brief notes.
When specific paintings are mentioned, look up the images separately for comparison to deepen your understanding of the text.
There is no need to read every page; prioritize chapters on her training and professional choices.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this autobiography mainly about art or about her life?

The two are intertwined. The book follows the thread of her life, focusing on her training, creative orientation, and professional choices, while also touching on family, the spirit of the times, and outside judgment. It is more a painter's retrospective on her own life than a systematic work of art theory.

Can I read it without knowing nineteenth-century British art?

Yes, but a little background will make it more rewarding. It helps to first understand the basic landscape of the Victorian art world and the situation of women receiving art education; you will then more easily understand the author's choices and perseverance and be less interrupted by unfamiliar names of people and institutions.

Is the English difficult?

The original is an English memoir from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. The sentences are long, but the tone is restrained and plain, making it moderately to fairly difficult overall. Readers with university-level English can read slowly; when encountering obstacles in period background or proper names, skip them first without affecting comprehension of the main thread.

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About the author

Elizabeth Southerden Thompson Butler (Lady Butler) Author · British · 1846–1933

Elizabeth Butler (Elizabeth Southerden Thompson), known as Lady Butler, was a British painter of the Victorian era, born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1846 and died in 1933. She is known for military history paintings such as those of the Crimean War, and her representative work The Roll Call (1874) was purchased by Queen Victoria. In 1877 she married the Army general Sir William Butler, after which she travelled with him across the Empire and engaged in travel writing and illustration. The library holds three of her works, including Letters from the Holy Land, From Sketch-book and Diary, and An Autobiography; these texts draw largely on her personal travels and observations, written in a plain style that combines documentary record with a painter's eye, offering first-hand material for the study of her artistic career and the spirit of her time.