Provenance:

Fletcher Trust Collection

Born Grace Cumming at Invercargill to Scottish immigrant parents she moved with her family to Norsewood and later, in 1903, to Gisborne. She attended Napier Art School until 1907 by which time she already worked on the staff. She also took private pupils in Gisborne. From 1910-14 she went to the Canterbury School of Art where she was taught by Sydney Lough Thompson, Cecil Kelly and Leonard Booth. In 1911 she married Guy Raphael Butler remaining until Christchurch until 1918 when she moved to Auckland. She and her husband bought a mountain shack at Arthur's Pass where Grace Butler would indulge in plein air painting, sometimes working even in snow when she was obliged to cover her easel and stand on heated stones. In 1925 she was again taught by Sydney Lough Thompson on one of his return trips from France. It was his post impressionist landscape style which formed the basis of her art. Grace Butler exhibited widely during her lifetime including at the Festival of Britain Exhibition of 1951. She died at Wellington.