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Scotland Forever!
Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler) · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler (1846–1933)
- Date
- 1881
- Dimensions
- 101.6 x 194.3 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, United Kingdom
Scotland Forever! shows the charge of the Royal Scots Greys, a regiment of grey horses, at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, galloping straight towards the viewer in a thundering wall of horses and raised sabres.
A closer look
Butler chose an extraordinary viewpoint: the horses rush head-on out of the canvas, so that the viewer seems about to be trampled. The leading horses' hooves fly through the air, nostrils flaring, while the riders lean forward, shouting. The energy and sense of speed are overwhelming. Butler, who studied horses carefully, reportedly stood in front of charging cavalry at a military review to observe the effect. Yet she never glorified war blindly; many of her paintings show its exhaustion and suffering.