Maxwell Armfield
(1881 - 1972)
Still Life, 1914
Private Collection
Maxwell Armfield (1881 - 1972)
Size:
Height – 25.4cm
Width – 20.3cm
Maxwell Armfield was one of the most skilful, and minutely representational artists of the twentieth-century.
From 1897, he studied at the Birmingham School of Art, where both Pre-Raphaelitism and the Arts and
Crafts Movement continued to exercise a dominant influence through the teachings of Arthur Gaskin and
Mary Morris. It is here that Armfield also discovered the work of the Tempera Revivalist Group, and honed
his technique alongside Joseph Southall, who taught tempera painting from his studio in Edgbaston.
Armfield specialised in small flower paintings and still-lives, of which ‘Winter Wood’ is an excellent example. In 1909, he married the author and playwright, Constance Smedley, who proved a strong influence upon his work and life. In 1910 they collaborated together on ‘The Flower Book’, a charming volume, containing poems, stories and anecdotes about the wonderful array of British plants and flowers. It was written by Constance Armfield, and illustrated by Maxwell Armfield, and contained four sections: The Meadows and Coppice’, The Hedge’, The Garden, The Pool’, and ‘The Herb Patch’.
Painter and decorative artist, especially in tempera, and writer. Born in Ringwood, Hampshire, Armfield was educated at Birmingham School of Art – there is a Birminfham Arts and Crafts flavour in his pictures – then in Paris and Italy. Exhibited extensively, including RA, Fine Art Society, for long a noted dealer in his work, NEAC, Leicester Galleries and abroad. His work is held by the British Museum, provincial and overseas galleries. He illustrated about 20 books and wrote A Manual of Tempera Painting, Tempera Painting Today, An Artist in America and An Artist in Italy. During World War I, with his writer wife Constance Smedley, Armfield attempted to set up a high-flown peoples’ Greenleaf Theatre in his studio, an abortive venture amusingly recalled by Margaret Gardiner in her book A Scatter of Memories. Armfield was a painter of landscape and still life well crafted and full of detail. Lived in Bath, Somerset.
