PHOTOS: French villagers had no idea their neighbour was a famous American artist

Residents of a small village were surprised to learn their elderly American neighbour had been a famous artist who exhibited in some of the world’s most prestigious museums.

Frances Butler, lived in Saint-Jean Lagineste, Lot (Occitanie), for around 30 years and died last September at the age of 83.

She was cremated and her ashes were buried under a tree in her garden.

Her will specified that she wished to donate her estate to the citizen-led agricultural association Terre de Liens – but it was only after her death that extraordinary murals and artworks were discovered in her home.

Ms Butler lived in a secluded 18th-Century farmhouse away from the village centre, and was seen only during festivals or at the mairie.

The handful of people who knew her remembered her as someone who had been a resident for 30 years but barely spoke French.

Officials visiting the farm after her death discovered the impressive wall art installations, prompting them to research their discreet neighbour’s life. It was then that they realised Ms Butler was a celebrated artist and designer and her textile and garden artworks had been exhibited at some of the world’s most famous institutions, including the Victoria & Albert and British Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

A historian, an artist, a teacher

Frances Marie Clark Butler was born on November 28, 1940, in Webster Groves, Missouri. She received a degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1961, and a masters in history at Stanford University.

She lost her husband Jonathan Butler in a car accident on New Year’s Day in 1974, which also left her in a coma for a month, an event described by friend Alastair Johnston as “the great tragedy of her life”. 

She taught at the Department of Design of UC Berkeley and was a professor emerita at UC Davis.

She retired from teaching in the 1990s and bought a farm in the Capay Valley, in California. Mr Johnston said: “She then turned her attention to France and toured the south but found it overpriced and overpopulated. On her return north, she visited a farm for sale that suited her.

“She lived there with cats, dogs and two donkeys, and decorated her buildings with coloured plaster and mosaics, telling the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.”

'You should never judge a book by its cover'

Since more elements of Ms Butler’s life come to light after her death, officials have reflected on the reclusive artist’s hidden identity.

Mayor Monique Martignac said: “I feel quite upset that her friends and family never told me who she really was. 

“You should never judge a book by its cover, but the person I knew was far from the image of an artist of her calibre. It’s a shame to think there had been someone in my village with such artistic gifts, and that we never knew about or benefited from her art.”

Ms Martignac asked Valentine Boé, director of cultural affairs for Causses et Vallée de la Dordogne and the director of art festival Résurgence, to make an inventory of the art in Mrs Butler’s home.

Ms Boé found nine art installations, which included mural frescoes and art objects.

“There are a lot of mosaics representing animals and scenes from Greek mythology,” she said.

Three frescoes were found on three walls of her house. One represented a lizard and two others depicted flowers. She also found a doll’s house.

Ms Butler had followed in the footsteps of other expatriate American and British artists who fell in love with Lot, such as American poet William S. Merwin, who wrote about its landscape in The Lost Upland, or Simon Copans, a professor who founded the well-known Souillac Jazz Festival.

Ms Butler was also a friend of British artist, teacher and poet John Furnival, who died in 2020, as well as his wife Astrid, and other artists living in France.

Exploring 'the margins of commercial production' in rural France

She once said: “My main creative impulse has always been the exploration of the margins of commercial production, outside academic institutions or the art world, leaving an artistic field when it became widely accepted.”

Friend Mr Johnston, 74, director of Poltroon Press, the publishing company he co-founded with Mrs Butler in 1975, described her as “headstrong”. He said: “She did not live by normal rules of society.

“Living on her own in France was part of that. She preferred living in rural France than urban America. She enjoyed the solitude of her life.”

He added that “she also enjoyed France because she was inspired by art naïf”, referring in particular to the Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval.

The ‘Palais’ is a 12m high by 26m wide fantasy built by postman Ferdinand Cheval between 1879 and 1912, using seashells, rocks, whitewash, mortar and cement.

“She saw her farm as the continuation of that form of art,” said Mr Johnston. He said Ms Butler probably died because of a recent series of accidents and falls.

She was transferred to Figeac hospital after breaking her spine, and had never recovered from having broken her thigh bone years before.

Ms Boé said she is waiting forestimates on the art ensembles from the notaire.

Due to the originality and multi-media nature of her work, it is unclear which type of property her art falls under.