01 Work, The Art of War, Charles Ernest Butler's Blood and Iron, with footnotes

Charles Ernest Butler (1864–1933)

Blood and Iron, c. 1916

Oil on canvas

H 191 x W 144.2 cm

Imperial War Museum London

In the foreground Christ nurses a dying woman who holds a child. Above them is Kaiser Wilhelm seated on horseback with the Angel of Death at his shoulder. There are German troops behing him. The Kaiser has a haunted but defiant expression, immune to the chaos around him. Bodies litter the ground and a dying man raises his fist to the Kaiser. Fires rage in a Belgian town, presumably Louvain, a church burns and a flare lights the sky.

In 1886, Count von Bismarck argued that German unification required a stronger military force: 'This policy cannot succeed through speeches and shooting competitions and songs; it can succeed only through blood and iron'. Butler's title links this policy directly to its consequences - the invasion of Belgium. In 1914 Louvain was razed to the ground in retribution for a Belgium uprising against the occupying German forces and the shooting of the German commander of the town.

Butler depicts the horrors of war, not as a pacifist statement but rather to encourage the recruitment of men to fight the evil of German aggression, personified in the Kaiser. Although this was neither a commissioned painting, nor authorised in any respect, it carries a populist message about the war to the extreme. The artist has mythologized and recreated historical events with the specific purpose of supporting the war effort at a difficult time. This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1917. More on this painting

Blood and Iron is the name given to a speech made by Otto von Bismarck on 30th September 1862, when he was Minister President of Prussia.

Charles Ernest Butler, British, 1864-1933,Oil on Board. signed LR, 10" H by 14" W unframed, 17.25" H by 21.25" W framed. Circa1920's.  Provenance:Private Collection, Leslie Hindman Auction, Private Collection, Milwaukee Born in St Leonards on Sea, England in 1864- 1933. He was a painter of portraits, mythological and other figure subjects, genre and landscapes. He studied at St John's Wood School of Art and at the RA Schools. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1889 right up until his death in 1933.  More on Charles Ernest Butler

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