A visit to the National Folklore Collection isn’t quite like a visit to other libraries or archives. As you enter, the door creaking gently behind you, you’re met with a certain feeling of history and possibility. It’s a feeling that you can’t quite put your finger on, but a distinct one nonetheless. Once inside you’re guided down the long hallway to the reading room, led onward by the smell of old books and manuscripts, the dark wood panelling soothing to the eyes. As you walk forward you’re accompanied by painted faces, some stern, some with a twinkle in their eye, and scenes and scenery that are distinctly Irish. This is the Artwork of the National Folklore Collection. With over one hundred pieces of art in total, it is a significant collection, although somewhat ironically, it is easy to overlook. Artwork isn’t something you might think of when you arrange your visit to a folklore archive. But the Art Collection is not simply wall decoration or an art collector’s fancy, rather each piece is as intrinsic to the National Folklore Collection as its archives and its books. Just like a folklore collector’s diary or a leather bound tome, each painting has a story to tell. Who painted them? How did they get here? What do they depict? And what do they mean to us now? These are the questions I invite you to ask while I tell you the story of just one of these pieces, a solemn masterpiece called The Eviction.
The hallway of the National Folklore Collection.
Painted in 1890, The Eviction is the work of Lady Elizabeth Butler. Lady Butler was born Elizabeth Southerden Thompson in 1846 in Switzerland to English parents. From the beginning her life had all the trappings of middle class comforts but with an artistic twist. Her father was a literary fanatic and her mother Christiana was a musician. Both were close friends with Charles Dickens. The family travelled extensively and Elizabeth and her siblings were encouraged to develop their artistic and linguistic talents. After an education in fine art, Elizabeth found her niche in military painting, a surprising genre for a young woman. In fact, it was so unusual that it made her work a sort of curiosity, though her skill was recognised beyond the novelty. Her work was lauded for its realness, and for striking an interesting juxtaposition between colonial military imagery and a more ‘warts and all’ approach of muddy earth and frenetic emotion. This is particularly impressive given that as a woman, Butler would not have been permitted to see battle in person.
With her interest in military depictions, it came as little surprise that Elizabeth would marry a military officer. In 1877, she wed Tipperary born William Butler. Butler is an interesting character to a 21st century audience. He was a proud Irishman with nationalist sympathies but was also an accomplished British soldier. He publicly denounced the systematic illegal evictions perpetrated by landlords after the famine, yet he himself was the son of a landlord. Like Elizabeth, William also had an appreciation for the arts. The two travelled extensively and it was on a visit to Wicklow that the couple encountered the scene that would become the inspiration for The Eviction.
William Butler, from a sketch by Lady Butler, 1899. Frontispiece, Sir William Butler : an autobiography / by Lient.-General the Rt. Hon. Sir W. F. Butler.
The Eviction is perhaps the most striking painting in the NFC Art Collection, not least because of its size. Measuring over two metres in length, the painting depicts the scene of a rural eviction, with a dispossessed woman standing central while she looks to the skies with resignation.
The Eviction on the wall of the National Folklore Collection.
Detail of The Eviction.
It is a highly emotive scene that could be accused of being manufactured to paint a political point. Lady Butler, however, insisted that this scene was painted from real life. She writes in her autobiography:
‘Being at Glendalough at the end of that decade, and hearing one day that an eviction was to take place some nine miles distant from where we were staying for my husband’s shooting, I got an outside car and drove off to the scene, armed with my paints. I met the police returning from their distasteful “job,” armed to the teeth and very flushed. On getting there I found the ruins of the cabin smouldering, the ground quite hot under my feet, and I set up my easel there. The evicted woman came to search amongst the ashes of her home to try and find some of her belongings intact. She was very philosophical, and did not rise to the level of my indignation as an ardent English sympathiser. However, I studied her well, and on returning home at Delgany I set up the big picture which commemorates a typical eviction in the black ‘eighties.’*
Unsurprisingly, The Eviction was not received well among the elite in England and did not achieve the artistic merit it deserved. As time progressed, Lady Butler’s influence declined. The family moved to Bansha house in Tipperary where William died in 1910.
*An Autobiography / by Elizabeth Butler
The unrest in Ireland, culminating in the War of Independence and Civil War, had a significant effect on Butler and her remaining family. In 1922, she relocated to live with her daughter Eileen in Gormanston Castle, which Eileen had inherited following her marriage to the 15th Viscount Gormanston in 1911. There Elizabeth continued to paint though she did not retain the recognition she had achieved in her earlier career. She died in 1933 at the age of 86.
But that is not the end of the story for The Eviction. Just how did it end up on the walls of UCD? For the answer to that question, we must turn, suitably, to the archives. In an unassuming folder labelled ‘Correspondence re: pictures’ the story continues. It begins with a letter sent by James Delargy, Director of the Irish Folklore Commission to Elizabeth’s son in England in 1939. The letter described how a chance encounter with author Francis Hackett in Copenhagen led him to know of the painting. Delargy asks merely for a photograph of the painting to be added to the Commission collections but also adds that if the Butler family should ever want to sell it, that the Commission be informed. He thinks, he writes, that there is no more fitting place for it than ‘side by side with the documentary evidence now being gathered about the Irish people of past times of whom modern Ireland knows so little’.
Excerpt from letter from James Delargy to Patrick Butler, 1939.
Delargy received a response, not from Elizabeth’s son, but from her daughter, Eileen, who is, at that time, still residing at Gormanston Castle, along with her mother’s painting.
She invites Delargy to Gormanston to view The Eviction, stating that she would ‘like the picture to be in a fitting home where it could be seen and appreciated’ but also notes that the figure offered in return must be reasonable.
Letter from Eileen Gormanston to James Delargy inviting Delary to view The Eviction with the possibility of purchasing it.
It was the financial outlay that would put a stop to Delargy’s hopes of adding The Eviction to the IFC. The Commission’s funding at this time was meager at best and the outbreak of the Second World War lent even more uncertainty for government departments at this time. A couple of years later the letters pick up again. The Eviction undoubtedly made an impression with Delargy who pays a second visit to view it and conversation regarding the sale of the painting begins again. Viscountess Gormanston, Eileen, motivated by keeping the picture in Ireland and on display for the public, drops the price significantly to allow the Commission to purchase it. She notes in her letters that it was always her mother’s wish that the painting stay in Ireland and to be on display. We at the National Folklore Collection are very glad to fulfil that wish.
Excerpt of letter from Eileen Gormanston to James Delargy, 1939.
The Eviction tells many stories. It tells the story of a nameless woman forcibly evicted from her home. It tells the story of Ireland in the late 19th century. And it tells the story of an artist and her husband who bore witness to it. But it also tells us the story of the Irish Folklore Commission and the motivation, the struggles, and the dedication of those who founded it. It is within the meeting of art and archive, visual and written, that these stories lie. And as the people of Ireland continue to pass by The Eviction, sitting proudly on the walls of the National Folklore Collection, who knows what stories it will continue to tell.
Excerpt of letter sent from James Delargy to Eileen Gormanston arranging the purchase of The Eviction, 1947.
Further resources:
A little kept / by Eileen Gormanston.
An Autobiography / by Elizabeth Butler
Beautiful war : studies in a dreadful fascination / Philip D. Beidler.
Lady Butler : war artist and traveller, 1846-1933 / Catherine Wynne.
Lady Butler, battle artist, 1846-1933 / Paul Usherwood and Jenny Spencer-Smith.
Sir William Butler : an autobiography / by Lient.-General the Rt. Hon. Sir W. F. Butler.
The Selected Letters of Alice Meynell : Poet and Essayist.
William Francis Butler : a life 1838-1910 / Martin Ryan.
The NFC Art Collection was the subject of a previous blog post written by Laura Ryan and can be found here.
This blog post was written by Claire Dunne, UCD Special Collections and the National Folklore Collection.
Have been to this great archive and seen the artwork which is awesome. Great piece of history uncovered here thanks a lot Claire great read. Carmel