author
Edward Armitage
1817–1896
Best known for dramatic historical, classical, and biblical scenes, this Victorian painter built a reputation for large, ambitious works and public commissions. He also studied in Paris under Paul Delaroche, linking his art to one of the great continental studios of the 19th century.
1 Audiobook
Lectures on Painting, Delivered to the Students of the Royal Acadamy
by Edward Armitage
About the author
Born in London on May 20, 1817, Edward Armitage became an English Victorian painter known for grand narrative subjects. He completed part of his education in France and Germany, then entered the Paris studio of Paul Delaroche in 1837, where he also assisted on Delaroche’s celebrated hemicycle for the Palais des Beaux-Arts.
Armitage settled in London in the late 1840s and went on to exhibit widely at the Royal Academy. His work often drew on history, religion, and classical literature, and he became especially associated with large-scale paintings and decorative schemes for public buildings. Among the works often noted in accounts of his career are Retribution and his frescoes for the Houses of Parliament.
He was elected a Royal Academician and remained an established figure in British art through the later 19th century. Armitage died on May 24, 1896, at Tunbridge Wells.