George Edmund Butler (1876-1932) – British born New Zealand artist

Found by Paul Simadas and posted on Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 14.12.2021 

Born on 15th January 1872 in Southampton, England, George Edmund Butler emigrated to New Zealand with his parents - Joseph Cawte Butler and his wife Jane, nee Tiller - in 1883, settling in Wellington. 

After completing his education at Te Aro School, Geroge worked for his father, who was a builder, and studied art part-time under James Nairn at the Wellington School of Design. George Edmund Butler became New Zealand’s second official war artist in August 1918 – three months before the end of the war. 

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force War Museum Committee approached him to be an official New Zealand war artist because of his reputation as an artist and his New Zealand connections. Appointed with the honorary rank of Captain in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in September 1918, he joined the New Zealand Division in France later that same month. 

He observed a number of military operations, some while under fire, during his time with the Division, making drawings in a sketchbook. These sketches later became the basis for his paintings. After the Armistice, George returned to France and Belgium to sketch the various New Zealand battlefield sites. 

Although he is now virtually unknown, at the time of his recruitment George Edmund Butler was recognised as a critically acclaimed artist in New Zealand and England. In 1904 alone, Butler won first prize in the art section of the Hawera Industrial Exhibition; had his first painting exhibited at the British Royal Academy’s prestigious annual exhibition in London; and was included in the New Zealand section of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (or World’s Fair), held in St Louis, Missouri. Butler also represented Wellington artists at the New Zealand International Exhibition of Arts and Industries held in Christchurch (1906-7). 

He was distinguished by a Mention Honourable at the Paris Salon of the Société des artistes français in 1911, and was elected to Bristol’s Royal West of England Academy in 1912. The NZEF War Records Section was keen to have such a successful New Zealand artist in the War Artists’ Section. Butler took up his official position with pride. He devoted himself to making work that would appeal to a New Zealand audience and be appropriate for the commemorative function of a War Memorial Museum. He wanted his official paintings to show issues, events and places that would resonate with New Zealanders and this comes across in his careful choice of subject matter.

Portrait of Major General Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell KCB, KCMG painted by George Edmund Butler - oil on canvas.

David Brown Milne (1882 – 1953) – Canadian artist who served as a Canadian war artist in Britain, Belgium and northern France during WWI

David Brown Milne was born near Paisley in Scotland on 8th January 1882. He was the last of ten children born to Scottish immigrant parents who went to live in Canada. His early education was in Paisley, followed by high school in Walkerton; Ontario, Canada. He performed well in school and soon after graduation began teaching in a country school near Paisley, Ontario*. During 1902 and 1903 he studied art through correspondence, eventually deciding to move to New York City in 1903 at the age of 21.

In New York, he spent two years (and a third year of night school) studying at the Art Students League. He came to know both American and European Impressionism, Post Impressionism, and Fauvism, modern approaches that helped shape his own style. A significant measure of this early success was his participation in two of North America’s most important exhibitions of art of the early 20th century: the famous Armory Show in 1913 (seen in New York, Boston, and Chicago) where he had five paintings exhibited and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915.[5] He was represented by the N. E. Montross Gallery (the same gallery showed 'The Eight' or Ashcan School artists).

In 1912, he married Frances May (known as Patsy) and later they moved to Boston Corners, a small hamlet where he painted with oils and watercolours. 

David  left Boston Corners in 1917 for basic training in Toronto for the First World War. He was stationed in Quebec and then quarantined in England for a month, during which time the war ended. Because of his background as an artist, he was asked to complete paintings and drawings as a war artist and produced artworks of battlefields in France and Belgium as well as of soldiers in Kinmel Park Camp in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, North Wales, near Abergele and Rhyl. The camp was built in 1915 to train troops during the First World War and was later used to house troops at the end of the conflict. A riot broke out in the camp among Canadian forces in 1919, concerning repatriation, leading to the deaths of several soldiers.

On 14th November 1952, David Brown Milne had a stroke. Over the next year he continued to suffer from small strokes and died in the hospital in Bancroft, Ontario, on 26th December 1953.

"The Cloth Hall, Ypres"

Posted by the Canadian Expeditionary Force Research Group 1914-1919 on the Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 16th January 2026.

Sources:

Artists of the First World War Facebook Page, Wikipedia and Find my Past

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) – Scottish artist, architect and designer

Charles was born in Glasgow on 7th June 1868. He became an architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret (nee Macdonald) who was also an artist, was influential on European design movements such as Art Nouveau and Secessionism and praised by great modernists such as Josef Hoffmann. 

He moved to the Suffolk village of Walberswick in 1914. There Mackintosh was accused of being a German spy and briefly arrested in 1915.  Interestingly, the stained glass artist Margaret Rope was also arrested in Suffolk on suspicion of being a German spy https://fascinatingfactsofww1.blogspot.com/2026/01/margaret-agnes-rope-1882-1953-british.html

Charles Rennie Mackintosh did not serve in any official capacity during WW1; and having faced suspicion as a potential spy due to his foreign connections, leading to harassment and relocation, his career was essentially over and he focused on painting flowers in the South of France and England.

Painting found by Paul Simadas and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook page on 14th January 2026:   Paul says:

“Winter Rose”, period print of a pencil and water-colour painting by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1916. Signed and dated by the artist.

This unusual watercolour from Charles Rennie Mackintosh was produced in Chelsea, London during the First World War. A rose, the source of so much inspiration for the artist, is observed here amidst foliage in its faded winter beauty. 

“Winter Rose” was painted in 1916 and this mid-war period proved to be financially difficult for the Scottish designer, craftsman and artist and his wife Margaret. With wartime building restrictions limiting demand Mackintosh’s only major architectural commission that year was for the remodelling of the existing multi-story residence at No. 78 Derngate, in Northampton in the English Midlands. The couple turned to producing textile designs which they sold to progressive manufacturers to raise funds. 

Mackintosh also painted several floral themed works for sale of which “Winter Rose” was but one ( Begonias, Peonies, Pinks, Yellow Tulips and Petunias were others). Unusually for Mackintosh, famous for stylised stencilled roses, this example is rendered as a still life. Surrounded by hips and leaves in muted winter colour the detailed rendering of the flower and overall compositon make a very appealing subject for the eye.”

Credit: The Victoria & Albert Museum.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh died in London on 10th December 1928.

Sources:  

Wikipedia and Find my Past and https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799

Edward Patrey (1856–1940).- British artist

Found by Paul Simadas and posted on the Artists of the First World War Facebook Page on 5th January 2026

Paul says:

Edward Patry was born in Marylebone, London, UK on 11th December 1856. His parents were Robert S Patry, a colonial broker and his wife, Isabella.  

Edward studied art under Maurice Greiffenhagen at Glasgow School of Art, in London at the Royal College of Art from 1879-1882 and later in Germany.

Edward Patrey was well regarded in his lifetime for his portraiture of British servicemen and this may have been originally commissioned as a private or Family commission by the original owner:

The portrait shown here is:

 ‘Flight Lieutenant Lane, Royal Naval Air Serive’, 1922, by Edward Patrey (1856–1940). Oil on canvas. 92 cm x x 72 cm. Royal Air Force Museum art collection.

This sizeable 1922 portrait of a young wartime pilot of the Royal Naval Air Service shows him wearing the ribbons if the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The artist has only identified this young officer by his surname, Lane.

The Officer’s rank embellishments are Royal Naval Air Service Flight Lieutenant's cuff rank lace, being two medium (half-inch) gold lace bands, one (the upper) with a loop, the ‘executive curl’, in the centre and a gilt eagle in flight worn above the upper lace band all worn on both sleeves. 

From June 1917, all flying officers were ordered to wear eagles on both cuffs to clearly signify their service in the RNAS. 

Sources:  Find my Past and Artists of the First World War Facebook Page

Alexander Kircher (1867 – 1939) – German artist

Alexander Kircher was born in Trieste, Italy on 26th February 1867. At that time Trieste belonged time to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Habsburg monarchy). As a young man he intended to choose the profession of a naval officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. However, due to a foot injury his application was rejected. In 1888 he went to study art at the Berlin Academy, where he concentrated mainly on marine painting from the start. His teachers were Hans Gude and Hermann Eschke.

Alexander made numerous study trips throughout Europa, Asia, North America and Egypt. During those travels, he made several important paintings, drawings and illustrations. In 1893 he worked on the picturesque decoration of buildings at the World Exhibition in Chicago as well as panoramas and dioramas of the marine painter de:Hans von Petersen. In addition, he worked as an illustrator for popular German and foreign magazines and publishers:

Although Alexander did not serve in a formal military capacity during The First World War due to the foot injury that led to his rejection from naval officer training as a young man, he was, however, associated with the German and Austro-Hungarian navies through his work as a maritime artist and illustrator.   

He also worked as an illustrator for German and Austrian newspapers and magazines. The Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung or the modern illustrated weekly Reclams universe (Leipzig), the writings of the Austrian (Vienna) and the German fleet association (Berlin) and the Viennese publisher Philipp & Kramer, for which he designed the postcard series "Dalmatia and Istria". These included Feldpost, postcards which Kircher created for the Austrian Red Cross, the War Welfare Office or the War Aid Office and also for the London Postcard Publisher Raphael Tuck & Sons and the Swedish Postcards Publisher: "Gothenburg Lithographic AB and Meyer & Köster". For some time Kircher owned a steam yacht, which he named Romana – which was his wife's name. 

Alexander died on 16th September 1939 in Berlin.

With thanks to Ognyan Hristov for finding this artist for us

Arthur Nantel (1874 - 1948) – Canadian soldier artist and POW in WW1

 With thanks to Paul Hendereson for finding this artist for us

Portrait of Nantel in
PoW camp
1916

Arthur Nantel was born on 22nd November 1874 in Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

Arthur began his career as a commercial artist in his home town of Montreal, and although he had no formal training he spent a lifetime earning a living in the arts. This talent helped him make it through the dark years of World War

When war broke out in August 1914, at the age of 41, Arthur enlisted with the 14th Royal Montreal Battalion. He first saw action at Ypres, Belgium, in April 1915, during the Battle of St. Julien. He was captured there and spent the remainder of the war as a Prisoner of War  at Giessen, a German prisoner of war camp.

For the first few years, Arthur’s captors saw him as a valuable commodity, exploiting him at every opportunity. He and a few other talented PoWs were given a small hut that they nicknamed Giessen Studio. “I sat at my easel, trying to earn the value of a piece of wurst (sausage) to assuage my voracious appetite…. Distinguished officers vied with each other in their efforts to have the monopoly of selling my works at a profit of 7,000 per cent.”

In 1917 he helped design a monument for the men who died in captivity at Giessen Camp, but that same year there was a change in command at the camp and Giessen Studio was shut down. Arthur ground out the remainder of the war in hard labour. His last seven months of internment were spent slaving in a mine.

The art from his days at the studio reflects his French Canadian roots. In spite of the misery of his position many of his works are filled with colour and joie de vivre. Those lively paintings have a folk art quality to them. The artist described his painting of Christmas Eve, 1916. “The evening jollification, which began with fairly orthodox dancing, gradually became a wild farandole (a communal dance) in and around the chimneys of the hut.”

Christmas Eve, 1916.

The years in a German PoW camp sharpened his artistic skills and after the war Nantel moved to New York where he worked as an illustrator for United Artists Studios, the motion picture company. In the 1930s he worked as a freelance illustrator. Nantel died on 6th November 1948 but he left behind a rare glimpse into the life of a WW I PoW.

Today, 31 of his works reside at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

Sources: Wikipedia and Find my Past

Charles Spencelayh (1865 – 1958) – British artist

Self  portrait

Charles Spencelayh was born in Rochester in Kent, UK on 27th October 1865.  He first studied at the National Art Training School, South Kensington. 

Charles showed his work at the Paris Salon but most of his exhibitions were in Britain. Between 1892 and 1958, he exhibited over 30 paintings at the Royal Academy, including "Why War" (1939), which won the Royal Academy ‘Picture of the Year’. He was also a founder member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, where he exhibited 129 miniatures between 1896 and 1954.

His son Vernon served in the Kings Liverpool and was later commissioned into the Worcersters.

Many of his subjects were of domestic scenes, painted with an almost photographic detail, such as "The Laughing Parson" (1935) and "His Daily Ration" (1946). He also painted still life subjects including "Apples" (1951).

Chaarles Spencelayh was a favourite of Queen Mary, who was an avid collector of his work. In 1924 he painted a miniature of King George V for the Queen's dolls’ house.

Charles died on 25th June 1958.

On 17th December 2009, Charles Spencelayh's masterpiece "The Old Dealer" was sold at auction at Sotheby's for over £345,000.

“A Minute’s Silence” painted in 1928 by Charles Spencelayh.

Source: Wikipedia 

NOTE; Silence is observed as part of Remembrance Day to remember those who died in conflict. Held each year at 11:00 am on 11th November.