Maxwell Ashby Armfield (5 October 1881 – 23 January 1972) was an English artist, illustrator and writer.

Life

Born to a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

family in Ringwood, Hampshire, Armfield was educated at

Sidcot School Sidcot School is a British co-educational private school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school is based in the Mendip Hills near the village of W ...

and at

Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading, Berkshire, Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, having ...

. In

1887 Events January * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

he was admitted to the

Birmingham School of Art The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design a ...

, then under the headmastership of

Edward R. Taylor __NOTOC__ Edward Richard Taylor RBSA (14 June 1838 – 14 January 1911) was an English artist and educator. He painted in both oil painting, oils and watercolours. He became a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1879. Biograph ...

and considered a major centre of the

Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

. There he studied under Henry Payne and Arthur Gaskin and, outside of the school, received instruction in

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. ''Tempera'' also refers to the paintings done in ...

painting from

Joseph Southall Joseph Edward Southall Royal Watercolour Society, RWS New English Art Club, NEAC Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, RBSA (23 August 1861 – 6 November 1944) was an England, English Painting, painter associated with the Arts and Crafts moveme ...

at Southall's studio in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies immediately south-west of Birmingham city centre, and was historically in Warwickshire. The Ward (electoral subdivision), wards of Edgbaston and Nort ...

. Armfield was later to recall: Leaving Birmingham in 1902, Armfield moved to Paris to study at the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière () is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the A ...

under

Gustave Courtois Gustave-Claude-Étienne Courtois, also known as Gustave Courtois (; 18 May 1852 in Pusey, Haute-Saône – 23 November 1923 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French painter, a representative of the academic style of art. Early life and education C ...

and

Émile-René Ménard Émile-René Ménard (15 April 1862 – 13 January 1930) was a French people, French Painting, painter. From early childhood he was immersed in an artistic environment: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Corot, Jean-François Millet, Millet and the Ba ...

, where he became an associate of

Gaston Lachaise Gaston Lachaise (March 19, 1882 – October 18, 1935) was a French-born sculptor, active in America in the early 20th century. A native of Paris, he is most noted for his robust female nudes such as his heroic '' Standing Woman''. Gaston Lachaise ...

, Keith Henderson, and Norman Wilkinson. He exhibited at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

, where his painting ''Faustine'' was bought by the French State and donated to the

Musée du Luxembourg The () is a museum at 19 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed the Marie de' Medici cycle by Peter Paul Rubens) an ...

, and is now in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

, Paris. In 1909 he married the author and playwright

Constance Smedley Anne Constance Smedley (20 June 1876 – 9 March 1941) was a British artist, playwright, author and founder of the International Association of Lyceum Clubs. Life Smedley was born in Handsworth near Birmingham in 1876. Her well-off and educat ...

, who was the first cousin of his friend and fellow artist

William Smedley-Aston William Smedley-Aston (1868–1941) was with his wife Irene a Victorian Pre-Raphaelite Arts & Crafts photographer and member of the Birmingham Group of artists and the Linked Ring Brotherhood. He was also known as W. S. Aston or W. Smedley. ...

and his wife Irene. Like many with connections to the

in Birmingham, the couple settled in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

: in

1911 Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * January 3 ** 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 7.7 m ...

, they appear on the census of that year as resident in

Minchinhampton Minchinhampton is a Cotswold Hills, Cotswolds market town and a civil parish in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire, South West England. The town is located on a hilltop, south-east of Stroud. The common offers wide views over the Severn Est ...

, Gloucestershire. The couple became close collaborators, working together to combine design, illustration, text and theatre. Armfield's wife also influenced him to become a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

and

Christian Scientist Activists, politicians, and military figures Activists *Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone (1882-1985) – Native American singer and activist * Bonnie Carroll – President and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) *Henry ...

. From 1915 the couple spent seven years in the United States. In 1946 Armfield released the book ''Tempera Painting Today'', published by Pentagon Press. Armfield has paintings in the collection of several British institutions including Derby Art Gallery, Southampton and Nottingham Gallery and the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery. A detail from Armfield's painting ''Self-Portrait'' (1901; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), was used as the cover illustration of the Oxford World's Classics 2006 edition of ''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...

''. The painting used for the cover of the 1969

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

album ''

Then Play On ''Then Play On'' is the third studio album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 19 September 1969. It was the first of their original albums to feature Danny Kirwan (although two tracks recorded with him were included on the ...

'' is from a mural by Armfield that was originally designed for the dining room of a London mansion.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Armfield, Maxwell Ashby 1881 births 1972 deaths 20th-century English painters English male painters People educated at Leighton Park School People from Ringwood, Hampshire Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art 20th-century English male artists