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Lot Essay
Armfield entered the Birmingham School of Art in 1899, where he learnt the tempera technique he was to favour for the rest of his life. He subsequently moved to Paris to further his studies and sold a picture to the Musée du Luxembourg in 1904. On his return to England he established himself as an expert in the Arts and Crafts field and his symbolic images inspired a following; he held many one-man exhibitions.
The present picture enjoys a wide exhibition history and is a tender portrait of his wife, the writer Constance Smedley, executed in the third year of their marriage (1911). They collaborated on many avant-garde literary and theatrical projects and spent seven years working together in America. This picture demonstrates the flat coloured surface and linear graphic style that is characteristic of Armfield's medium and lends his work its charming decorative quality.
The present picture enjoys a wide exhibition history and is a tender portrait of his wife, the writer Constance Smedley, executed in the third year of their marriage (1911). They collaborated on many avant-garde literary and theatrical projects and spent seven years working together in America. This picture demonstrates the flat coloured surface and linear graphic style that is characteristic of Armfield's medium and lends his work its charming decorative quality.