01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Maxwell Ashby Armfield's Salome with the head of St John the Baptist, with Footnotes #196

Maxwell Ashby Armfield, R.W.S. (1881-1972)

Salome with the head of St John the Baptist

Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour heightened with touches of gold on paper

12 x 93⁄8 in. (30.5 x 23.9 cm.)

Private collection

Estimate for GBP 15,000 - GBP 25,000 in Jul 2022

Salome was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. She is infamous for demanding and receiving the head of John the Baptist, according to the New Testament. According to Flavius Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, Salome was first married to Philip the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trakonitis. After Philip's death in 34 AD she married Aristobulus of Chalcis and became queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor. They had three children. Three coins with portraits of Aristobulus and Salome have been found. Her name in Hebrew meaning "peace". More on Salome

It was in the heady atmosphere of Paris at the turn of the century that Armfield encountered the works that were to influence the subject of this watercolour, for he went there to study in 1902. Born the son of Quaker parents in Hampshire, he was greatly encouraged by them in his artistic career, and initially studied in Birimingham under Arthur Gaskin, Henry Payne, and Joseph Southall. Their influence can strongly be discerned in his work, and it was with Norman Wilkinson, another member of the Birmingham group, that he first shared a studio in Paris, enrolling at the Académie de la Grande Chaumire. More on this painting

Maxwell Ashby Armfield (5 October 1881 – 23 January 1972) was an English artist, illustrator and writer.

Born to a Quaker family in Ringwood, Hampshire, Armfield was educated at Sidcot School and at Leighton Park School. In 1887 he was admitted to the Birmingham School of Art. There he studied under Henry Payne and Arthur Gaskin and, outside of the school, received instruction in tempera painting from Joseph Southall at Southall's studio in Edgbaston.

Leaving Birmingham in 1902, Armfield moved to Paris to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under Gustave Courtois and René Menard. He exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1904, where his painting Faustine was bought by the French State and donated to the Musée du Luxembourg, and is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

In 1909 he married the author and playwright Constance Smedley. Like many with connections to the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham, the couple settled in the Cotswolds. The couple became close collaborators, working together to combine design, illustration, text and theatre. Armfield's wife also influenced him to become a pacifist and Christian Scientist.

From 1915 the couple spent seven years in the United States.

In 1946 Armfield released the book 'Tempera Painting Today', published by Pentagon Press. More on Maxwell Ashby Armfield

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