Logo
ARMSTRONG, Francis Abel William Taylor, RBA, RWA. PDF Print E-mail
Born in Malmesbury on February 15th, 1849, and came to live in Bristol at 42, St. Michael’s Hill in 1905. The same year, at the age of fifty-six, he was elected an Artist Member of the Tribe. He was then a well established artist having exhibited in London, Paris, Berlin and Dusseldorf and, in 1895 had been elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. In 1908 he entered a picture in the Franco British Exhibition and also was elected a member of the Royal West of England Academy, for a time acting as Chairman of their Committee. There is no record of his having worked in our Studio but he exhibited regularly at many Savages Exhibitions. This suggested that he was another of those professional perfectionists who felt unable to do himself justice in the 2 hour sketch period. This is further borne out by the fact that he contributed a painting to the Bongie, Rossy and Peake Folios, all of which were probably done at leisure. These are the only examples of his work in the Tribe`s collection. His chief claim to fame was as a landscape painter, but he also illustrated periodicals and collaborated with the illustrations to “Lorna Doone“. On December lst, 1920, he died, aged seventy-one. (Cecil Broome)