the Academy in 1873 her picture called "Missing," which was
praised; but the "Roll-Call," of the following year, placed her in the
front rank of the Academy exhibitors. It was purchased by the Queen and
hung in Windsor Castle. She next exhibited the "Twenty-Eighth Regiment at
Quatre Bras," the "Return from Inkerman," purchased by the Fine Art
Society for L3,000. This was followed by kindred subjects.
In 1890 Lady Butler exhibited "Evicted," in 1891 the "Camel Corps," in
1892 "Halt in a Forced March," in 1895 the "Dawn of Waterloo," in 1896
"Steady the Drums and Fifes," in 1902 "Tent Pegging in India," in 1903
"Within Sound of the Guns."
In 1869 she painted a religious picture called the "Magnificat." In
water-colors she has painted "Sketches in Tuscany" and several pictures
of soldiers, among which are "Scot's Grays Advancing" and "Cavalry at a
Gallop."
Lady Butler has recently appeared as an author, publishing "Letters from
the Holy Land," illustrated by sixteen most attractive drawings in
colors. The _Spectator_ says: "Lady Butler's letters and diary, the
outcome of a few weeks' journeyings in Palestine, express simply and
forcibly the impressions made on a devout and cultivated mind by the
scenes of the Holy Land."
In 1875 Ruskin wrote in "Notes of the Academy": "I never approached a
picture with more iniquitous prejudice against it than I did Miss
Thompson's--'Quatre Bras'--partly because I have always said that no
woman could paint, and secondly because I thought what the public made
such a fuss about _must_ be good for nothing. But it is Amazon's work
this, no doubt of it, and the first fine pre-Raphaelite picture of battle
we have had; profoundly interesting, and showing all manner of
illustrative and realistic faculty.... The sky is most tenderly painted,
and with the truest outline of cloud of all in the Exhibition; and the
terrific piece of gallant wrath and ruin on the extreme left, when the
cuirassier is catching round the neck of his horse as he falls, and the
convulsed fallen horse, seen through the smoke below, is wrought through
all the truth of its frantic passion with gradations of color and shade
which I have not seen the like of since Turner's death."
The _Art Journal_, 1877, says: "'Inkerman' is simply a marvellous
production when considered as the work of a young woman who was never on
the field of battle.... No matter how many figures she brings into the
scene, or how few, you may notice
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