John Armstrong

Pavanne - 17th Century Court Dance - British exhibited Surrealist oil painting

1944

An original oil on canvas by the noted Scottish artist William Gear. A fabulous painting. One of his best and a seminal work which dates to 1959. Provenance. Douglas Foulis Art Galle...

An oil on canvas painted by Jack Sassoon which was certainly a premonition of what was to come. Entitled Death of the Young Men and dated 1938, it depicts men in gas masks and a woma...

Painted by "Modern British" artist Augustus Lunn this oil/tempera on board depicts Christ Expelling the Money Changers. He exhibited widely at The Cooling Galleries and The New Engl...

This superb British 1930's modern art tempera painting is by noted interwar artist Blair Hughes-Stanton. Painted in 1936 it is part of the myth se...

This striking British Edwardian religious oil painting is by noted artist Francis 'Frank' Owen Salisbury or Frank O'Salisbury as he is largely known. Painted in 1911 it is a figurative landscape of soldiers on the battlefield. The two central characters, the 'Christian Soldiers' from the early crusades have halos and ride through the chaos on white horses. Shafts on light with angels illuminate them and also a crucifix. A very powerful Edwardian religious oil painting and an excellent example of O'Salisbury's work. painted in oil and illuminated in gold leaf. Signed and dated with monogram lower right 1911. Provenance. From Castle of Park, Aberdeenshire. A version of this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy London in 1911 entitled the Passing of War. Condition. Oil on canvas, 36 inches by 24 inches unframed and in good condition. Frame. Housed a complementary frame, 44 inches by 32 inches framed and in good condition. Francis ("Frank") Owen Salisbury (18 December 1874 – 31 August 1962) was an English artist who specialised in portraits, large canvases of historical and ceremonial events, stained glass and book illustration. In his heyday he made a fortune on both sides of the Atlantic and was known as "Britain’s Painter Laureate". His art was steadfastly conservative and he was a vitriolic critic of Modern Art – particularly of his contemporaries Picasso, Chagall and Mondrian. His father, Henry Salisbury, described himself as a "plumber, decorator and ironmonger" (his mother was Susan Hawes), yet his son Frank would become one of the greatest society artists of his generation. One of 11 children, Salisbury was such a delicate child that he was educated at home, in the main by his student teacher sister, Emilie. He had only a few weeks formal schooling and began work by repairing bicycles at his father’s Cycle Depot in Harpenden. Uncertain as to his ability to find and maintain a job, the family determined that he be apprenticed, at the age of 15, to Henry James Salisbury, his eldest brother, who managed a major stained glass company in Alma Road, St Albans. He rapidly acquired all the practical skills of a stained glass artist and exhibited exceptional skills in the painterly detail that was applied to glass before its final firing. This led to his brother sponsoring him to attend Heatherley’s School of Art three days a week to further a career in painting. He then won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools which he attended for five years and where he won two silver medals and two scholarships, including the Landseer scholarship which funded his to travel to Italy in 1896. In due course he would have seventy exhibits accepted for the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, from 1899 until 1943, though he was never offered membership, which reportedly disappointed him very much. In 1901 he married Alice Maude (d. 1951), daughter of C. Colmer Greenwood, with whom he had several children, including twin daughters Monica and Sylvia. His first Royal Academy exhibit was a portrait of Alice and he often painted pictures of their children. It is for portraiture that he is best known. His speed in producing portraits stemmed from his painting his own twin daughters every morning for an hour and his career began with child portraiture and his painting the Hertfordshire gentry and members of the Harpenden Methodist Church. He had a studio at his home, Sarum Chase. A providential meeting with Lord Wakefield, founder of Castrol Oils and a Methodist philanthropist, saw his introduction to society portraiture. Salisbury’s being selected to paint the Boy Cornwell in the Battle of Jutland then brought him to the notice of Royalty. Lord Wakefield then arranged for him to paint President Woodrow Wilson whilst he was in London, but Wilson departed for Paris and the opportunity was lost. It was to be John W. Davis, American Ambassador to London, who encouraged Salisbury to go to the USA; Davis had met Salisbury at art receptions and had admired his child portraits. Twenty-five members of the Royal House of Windsor sat for Salisbury and he was the first artist to paint HM Queen Elizabeth II. In 1919 he painted a mural for the Royal Exchange, London National Peace Thanksgiving Service on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, 6th July 1919. He painted Winston Churchill on more occasions than any other artist; the two iconic images of Churchill – The Siren Suit and Blood, Sweat and Tears are both Salisbury images. Mayoral regalia was a ready made requisite for the Salisbury style with Councillor Sam Ryder (of Ryder Cup fame) as Mayor of St Albans being the most famous of his civic images. Other significant portraits include those of Richard Burton, Andrew Carnegie (posthumous), Sir Alan Cobham, Sir Robert Ludwig Mond, Maria Montessori...

This superb, large British Victorian oil painting is by noted Newlyn and Menton artist Arthur Alfred Burrington. It was painted circa 1890 when Burrington was most likely in Newlyn, ...

In the garden. 1970s Cardboard, tempera, 59x59 cm Vladimir Borisovich Glushenkov (May 21, 1948, Riga - December 26, 2009, Riga.) - painter, graphic artist, poet, translator. Born i...

Surreal abstract expressionist painting of a group of clowns in the style of Belgian painter James Ensor. Combining the macabre with the playful, the work features distorted clowns a...

Alison Underwood's work evokes various emotions of desires as her artwork proves to display the ideas of temptation and anticipation. These profound feelings are demonstrated in the ...

Alison Underwood's work evokes various emotions of desires as her artwork proves to display the ideas of temptation and anticipation. These profound feelings are demonstrated in the ...

Alison Underwood's work evokes various emotions of desires as her artwork proves to display the ideas of temptation and anticipation. These profound feelings are demonstrated in the ...

"Stunning surrealist painting by Mid-20th Century artist Nicholas Orsini. Both figural and botanic in an array of deep, saturated hues. Oil on stretche...