“Art Comes to Life” was the visually majestic theme when the Mystic Club, one of the highlights of the annual Carnival season, watched the works of European Old Masters come to life in a lavish ball.

Madrid’s Museo del Prado, home of Goya’s “The Family of King Carlos IV,” was the setting established by the invitation and program as the court brought several of the paintings to life.

Reigning over the ball as The Mystic Queen was Mrs. Kimberlin Price Butcher, who, with her king, embodied the couple from Gutav Klimt’s “The Kiss.” Her majesty’s gown featured stylized elements from the Austrian’s famous 1908 portrait of young lovers embracing.

Ladies-in-waiting, representing other great works, included Mesdames George Perry Eastman IV, “Swaying Dancer” by Degas; Michael Livaudais LeBourgeois, “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli; Richard Bullard Montgomery IV, “Singer in Green” by Degas; and Jonathan Edward Robert, “The Birth of Venus.”

A select number of debutantes of the season were presented, including Misses Emma Rose Baumer, Kate Falkner Bensel, Kelsey Grace French, Fenner Elise French, Lillian Lair Hooper, Susan Anne Le Clercq, Lucile McGlinchey Monsted, Brooke Coleman Reiss, Elizabeth McLundie Bolton Schmidt and Helen Claire Thompson. 

Her majesty, who reigned as queen of Comus in 1991 as Helen Nalty, has a multigenerational connection to Carnival traditions, and a steadfast commitment to service. Her mother, Mrs. Donald J. Nalty, was presented as a debutante in 1991, a lady-in-waiting in 2012, and her daughter, Laura, was presented as a debutante in 2023. She is the mother of three children: Price, Martin and Laura.

Mrs. Butcher’s early education began at Louise S. McGehee School before she graduated from The Gunston School in Centreville, Maryland, and Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia.

She serves on the boards of governors for Isidore Newman School and the Louisiana Museum Foundation. She has held board positions with the Junior League of New Orleans, Lighthouse for the Blind, the Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses, and Trinity Episcopal School. She was president of both the McGehee School Parents’ League and the Junior League of New Orleans Garden Club. 

Her majesty has chaired fundraising events for the NewmanFUND and N’spiration Auction at Newman; the 50th anniversary celebration at Trinity; the Centennial Patron Party and All That Jazz fundraiser at McGehee; the Amazing Grapes Wine Auction and Historic Houses events for the Hermann-Grima; and Sentimental Journeys at Longue Vue House and Gardens. She has also chaired the Legends & Lagniappe Gala for the Junior League, the Sugarplum Ball for Children’s Hospital, Double Shot in the Dark for Ochsner Hospital, and Chairish the Children for the Children’s Museum, among numerous others including the Zoo-to-Do and the Showhouse Opening Night for the Cashiers Historical Society in North Carolina.

Mrs. Butcher is an active member of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, the National Society of Colonial Dames of America and the Junior League of New Orleans Garden Club.