Article
Online Exhibitions: Painter of Portraits
Butler's experience as a portraitist informed his scientific imagery: quick notational skills developed creating portraits enabled him to capture eclipses that were scant minutes in duration. His portraiture further relates to his eclipse paintings in that each is, at heart, about perceiving and then presenting what usually goes unseen, be it the essential character (as opposed to outward appearance) of a sitter or celestial events previously impossible to accurately represent. Hence the artist's seemingly unrelated pursuits speak to a consistent interest in deploying representation to convey the otherwise unknowable.
Howard Russell Butler's brother, William Allen Butler Jr., followed in his father's footsteps and became a highly respected lawyer. While students together at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), William and Howard were avid rowers on the canal near the college. Later, both played a critical role in persuading Andrew Carnegie to build a lake and securing the land needed for this enterprise. In his Biographical Notes, Howard recalled, "The difficulty of rowing on the canal and the impossibilities of having any races on it, made us wish that the adjoining marshland could be cleaned and flooded. This was the first idea of Princeton lake, long afterwards realized in Lake Carnegie." This portrait was a gift by the artist to the Princeton University Rowing Association. William is also known as the "father of rowing at Princeton," a title given to him because of his efforts on behalf of the rowing program.
Howard Russell Butler's brother, William Allen Butler Jr., followed in his father's footsteps and became a highly respected lawyer. While students together at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), William and Howard were avid rowers on the canal near the college. Later, both played a critical role in persuading Andrew Carnegie to build a lake and securing the land needed for this enterprise. In his Biographical Notes, Howard recalled, "The difficulty of rowing on the canal and the impossibilities of having any races on it, made us wish that the adjoining marshland could be cleaned and flooded. This was the first idea of Princeton lake, long afterwards realized in Lake Carnegie." This portrait was a gift by the artist to the Princeton University Rowing Association. William is also known as the "father of rowing at Princeton," a title given to him because of his efforts on behalf of the rowing program.
