{{short description|New Zealand artist (1886-1962)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox artist | name = Grace Butler | image = Grace Butler 1909.jpg | caption = Grace Butler in 1909 Canterbury School of Arts group photo | birth_name = Grace Ellen Cumming | birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|12|23|df=y}} | birth_place = Invercargill, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|1962|11|23|1886|12|23|df=y}} | death_place = Wellington, New Zealand | movement = | spouse = Guy Raphael Butler | relatives = Helen Brew (daughter) | awards = | patrons = | field = Painting – Landscape painting | training = Napier Technical School, Canterbury College School of Art (Sydney Thompson) | works = 'Glaciers, Rolleston Mountains', 'Bush Trees, Lake Kanieri', 'Governor's Bay', 'Summertime, Arthur's Pass' }}
'''Grace Ellen Butler''' (née '''Cumming''', 23 December 1886 – 23 November 1962) was a New Zealand artist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4b54/butler-grace-ellen|title=Butler, Grace Ellen|website=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artist/2344/|title=Butler, Grace|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref>
Butler was known for her landscape paintings of New Zealand and her works are held in the collections of the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
== Early life and family == Born Grace Ellen Cumming, in 1886, Richmond Grove, Invercargill, she was the daughter Scottish immigrants, Jane Cameron and William Forbes Cumming, a carter and contractor.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-PlaNine-t1-body-d1-d207.html|title=BUTLER, Grace|website=nzetc.victoria.ac.nz|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Following the death of her father in 1889 her family moved to the North Island and she attended the Norsewood School,<ref name=":0" /> where her eldest sister worked as a teacher.<ref name=":2" />
She married Guy Raphael Butler, a law clerk from Poverty Bay, in Gisborne on 1 March 1911 and they settled in Christchurch.<ref name=":0" /> The couple went on to have three daughters,<ref name=":0" /> including Helen Brew.<ref>{{DNZB|last=Cox|first=Elizabeth|id=6b11/brew-helen-jean|title=Brew, Helen Jean|access-date=24 May 2021}}</ref>
== Education == From around 1903 until 1907 Butler attended the Napier Technical School and studied art. She also worked at the school as a teacher.<ref name=":0" />
In 1910 she enrolled in the Canterbury College School of Art (now Ilam School of Fine Arts) where she studied until 1914.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Rf9RNVshoAC|title=The Arts & Crafts Movement in New Zealand, 1870–1940: Women Make Their Mark|last=Calhoun|first=Ann|date=2000|publisher=Auckland University Press|isbn=978-1-86940-229-7|pages=148|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> In her first year at the college she was awarded the Advanced Art Scholarship. During her time at the college she studied under Sydney Thompson, Leonard Booth, Cecil Kelly, and Richard Wallwork. Throughout her life Butler continued to be influenced by Sydney Thompson, attending his classes in 1923–1925.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == In 1915 Butler became a working member of the Canterbury Society of Arts<ref name=":0" /> and began to exhibit regularly with New Zealand art societies. As well as the Canterbury Society of Arts<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/exhibition/2/|title=Artists exhibited with Canterbury Society of Arts|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/about/library/csa-annual-catalogues|title=Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu|website=christchurchartgallery.org.nz|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref> she exhibited with the Auckland Society of Arts,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/exhibition/1/|title=Artists exhibited with Auckland Society of Arts|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/exhibition/4/|title=Artists exhibited with New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref> Otago Art Society,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/exhibition/7/|title=Artists exhibited with Otago Art Society|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref> and The Group (1934).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/about/library/the-group/-1934|title=The Group 1934|website=christchurchartgallery.org.nz|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref> Butler regularly exhibited with the exhibited Canterbury Society of Arts until 1960.<ref name=":0" />
Works by Butler were included in the London British Empire Exhibition in London (1924)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/exhibition/18/|title=Artists exhibited with British Empire Exhibition, London, 1924|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The British Empire Exhibition (1924)|date=1924|publisher=Fleetway Press |hdl = 2027/uc1.$b279298}}</ref> and the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, taking place in Dunedin, 1925 – 1926.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/exhibition/16/|title=Artists exhibited with New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, Dunedin, 1925-6|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/about/library/archives/catalogue-of-the-international-exhibition-of-the-f|title=Catalogue of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition|website=christchurchartgallery.org.nz|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref>
In 1916 and 1920 the Canterbury Society of Arts acquired two of her landscapes for its permanent collection.<ref name=":0" /> Works by Butler are also held at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki including ''Glaciers, Rolleston Mountains'' (presented to the museum in 1922),<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/450/glaciers-rolleston-mountains|title=Glaciers, Rolleston Mountains|work=Auckland Art Gallery|access-date=30 September 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> ''Bush Trees, Lake Kanieri'',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/731/bush-trees-lake-kanieri|title=Bush Trees, Lake Kanieri|work=Auckland Art Gallery|access-date=30 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> and ''Governor's Bay''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/7369/governors-bay|title=Governor's Bay|work=Auckland Art Gallery|access-date=30 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> Other notable works by Butler include ''Summertime, Arthur's Pass'' (c. 1945).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/10252/summertime-arthurs-pass|title=Summertime, Arthur's Pass|website=teara.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref>
=== Landscape painting === Butler became well known for her landscapes. The critic James Shelley praised her work saying, "No artist in New Zealand had quite the same sympathy with our alpine scenery" and fellow painter Olivia Spencer Bower saw her as, "one of the first women who bothered about New Zealand scenery."<ref name=":0" />
Many of her landscapes were of the area around Otira. She first traveled to the region in 1916 and then visited regularly after she and her husband purchased a cabin at Arthur's Pass.<ref name=":0" />
Butler was committed to the ''en plein air'' method and often worked in adverse conditions at remote sites.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/2755/grace-ellen-butler-painting-out-of-doors|title=Grace Ellen Butler painting out of doors|website=teara.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref> The relation of light to tone and colour were key elements in her landscapes. From the late 1920s she was increasingly influenced by the work of the impressionists and her painting style became freer and looser.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{The Group NZ}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Grace}} Category:1887 births Category:1962 deaths Category:New Zealand painters Category:New Zealand women painters Category:People from Invercargill Category:University of Canterbury alumni Category:People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Category:Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni Category:People associated with the Canterbury Society of Arts Category:People associated with the Auckland Society of Arts Category:People associated with The Group (New Zealand art)