Maxwell Ashby Armfield (1882-1972)
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Maxwell Ashby Armfield (1882-1972)

Portrait of Constance Smedley, three-quarter length, with a violin

Details
Maxwell Ashby Armfield (1882-1972)
Portrait of Constance Smedley, three-quarter length, with a violin
signed, inscribed and dated 'MAXWELL ARMFIELD/FECIT MDCCCCVI OCT.VI-OCT XVIII' (lower right, with a sketch of a rainbow beneath)
oil on canvas
28½ x 24¼ in. (72.4 x 61.1 cm.)
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This pensive, almost Whistlerian, portrait depicts the writer Constance Smedley, who studied with Armfield at the Birmingham School of Art and later became his wife. They collaborated on a number of community, decorative and theatrical Arts projects, in London, the Cotswolds, California and New York. Music was a common passion, as was the language of flowers, which formed the basis of their publication: The Armfields' Flower Book (1922).

It is unusual for Armfield to paint in oil rather than watercolour, or the tempera which became a hallmark of his subsequent work.

We are grateful to Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe, who is working on a biography of the artist, for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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