Thomas Butts
British patron of art (1759-1846)
Thomas Butts (1757-1845) was an English senior civil servant, and the leading patron to the artist and poet William Blake.
01Early life and family
Thomas Butts was born in 1757 to Thomas Butts and Hannah Witham. He married Elizabeth Mary Cooper (1754-1825), who was a schoolmistress. They lived at number 9, Great Marlborough Street, Soho, London. Their great-granddaughter was the modernist writer Mary Butts (1890-1937).
02Career
Butts was Assistant Commissary of Musters, and chief clerk to the Commissary General of Musters.
Butts and William Blake first met in about 1799, and he regularly advanced Blake money to pay for future work. Blake taught engraving to Butts' son. Blake created a number of miniatures of the Butts family during the period from about 1801 to 1809, and these are in the collection of the British Museum. The patronage reduced from about 1816, although Butts purchased a set of the Job engravings in 1825, and in 1827 was a subscriber for the Dante engravings.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Thomas Butts”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Portrait of Thomas Butts c1801 The British Museum.jpg by William Blake, Public domain
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