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Frontispiece to Lamont.
Thomas Armstrong was born on October 19, 1832 in Fallowfield, Manchester, the eldest son of Thomas Armstrong Sr., who was connected with the cotton industry, and his wife Sarah Evans. Armstrong received his early education at a private school in Tarvin in Cheshire. After leaving school Armstrong worked for Openshaws, a business house in Manchester, whose owners were friends of his family. In his leisure time Thomas attended art classes in Manchester and in 1852 exhibited two paintings at the Royal Manchester Institution. After he had worked for Openshaws for a year his employer realised that Armstrong was not cut out to be a successful businessman. He suggested Armstrong follow his desire to become an artist and gave him money to start in that direction.
His former employer also suggested he study art in Paris art and, despite initial opposition from his family, his artistic training began there in 1853. He initially studied in the atelier of Gabriel Navier, where he became a pupil of Ary Scheffer. In the evenings Armstrong studied at Suisse's Academy. In 1854 he spent some time in the artists' colony at Barbizon where he met Jean Francois Millet. Armstrong went to Antwerp to study in June 1855 where he worked in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts under Jozef van Lerius for a few months before returning home to Manchester. He returned to Paris in 1856 to train at Charles Gleyre's studio where his fellow pupils included George du Maurier, James Whistler, Val Prinsep, and Edward Poynter.
Armstrong lived in Algiers in 1858-59 with his uncle the Rev. William Evans. During Armstrong's time there he painted some Orientalist works. In 1859-1860 Armstrong spent time with du Maurier in Dusseldorf. He then returned to England in 1860, initially living in Manchester, but soon moved to London. Early on he lived in rooms in Great Russell Street, close to the du Mauriers and the Burne-Joneses. By 1865 Armstrong was living at 47 London Street, Fitzroy Square. In 1869 he moved to 121 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square where he lived for the next twelve years.
In his early years he was involved in numerous decorative projects with progressive architects like George Aitchison (architect of Leighton House) and W. E. Nesfield, sometimes in collaboration with his friend Randolph Caldecott whom he first met in 1870. In 1872 Armstrong paid the first of his numerous visits to Italy, his brother Frederick then living in Milan. On his first six-week tour he visited Milan, Verona, Padua, Venice. Ravenna, Bologna, Florence, Sienna and Spezia before returning to London via Paris and Boulogne. He exhibited in the Royal Academy in London from 1865 to 1877 and from 1888-91 at the Grosvenor Gallery. He also exhibited at the British Institution and the Dudley Gallery. In 1877 he became one of the founding members of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. He married Alice Brine at the British Embassy in Paris in April 1881.
On October 3, 1881 he began his appointment as Director of the Art Division and Art Advisor of the Science and Art Department of the Committee of the Council of Education at the South Kensington schools, South Kensington Museum, replacing Edward Poynter. This appointment gave him overall responsibility for the organisation and supervision of art education throughout Britain. He also acted as Inspector of the provincial schools of art and advised as to purchases and general arrangements of the art branch of the South Kensington Museum. Armstrong remained Director until 1898. He was eventually forced to abandon his own work as an artist because each year he was Director the job made greater demands upon his time. His only time for painting and sketching proved to be during his short holiday vacations and he ceased to exhibit. Even following his retirement he continued to work occasionally for the Department, both in inspection and in the giving of expert opinion on objects offered to the Museum.
Early in 1882 the Armstrongs had moved into 14 Sheffield Terrace, Campden Hill, which was to be their home for the next eleven years. In 1883 the Armstrongs' only child, Ambrose George, was born but he unfortunately died young. In 1887 Armstrong was awarded the Silver Medal by the Society of Arts. He was made a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in July 1898. In October 1898, following his retirement, the Armstrongs left London to live in Abbotts Langley, Hertfordshire. He died on April 22, 1911 at his home Abbotts House in Abbotts Langley and was buried in St. Lawrence Churchyard.
Armstrong was a friend of most of the major progressive artists and architects associated with the second phase of Pre-Raphaelitism and the Aesthetic Movement. These included James Whistler, Albert Moore, Edward Burne-Jones, D. G. Rossetti, William Morris, Ford Madox Brown, William Bell Scott, Simeon Solomon, Frederic Leighton, Edward Poynter, Val Prinsep, William De Morgan, George Howard, J. R. S. Stanhope, J. W. Inchbold, Frederic Burton, Henry Wallis, Frederic Shields, Walter Crane, E. R. Hughes, G. D. Leslie, J. H. Pollen (one of those who helped decorate the Oxford Union Debating Hall) and Barbara Bodichon, as well as the architects mentioned above, George Aitchison and William Eden Nesfield. Armstrong obviously had a flair for friendship because he even managed to remain friends with Whistler to the end of his life. Armstrong was also a member of the Athenaeum Club where he would have encountered many of the leading men of his time.
Bibliography
Boyes, J. F. "Chiefs of our National Museums. No. V. – The South Kensington Museum. Mr. Thomas Armstrong." The Art Journal (1891): 271-73.
Lamont, L. M. Thomas Armstrong, C.B. A Memoir. London: Martin Secker, 1912.
Created 19 March 2023
Last modified 12 November 2024