Algernon TALMAGE

Algernon Mayow TALMAGE RA, RBA, ROI, RWA, ARE
1871
1939

 Born in Fifield, Oxfordshire, the son of a clergyman of Cornish stock, Talmage studied at the Herkomer School, Bushey at the same time as Lucy Elizabeth KEMP-WELCH. He came first to Cornwall with his friend, Greville MORRIS, also a St Ives student, and in meeting Arnesby BROWN decided to stay (The Artist, Oct 1932 quote). Within Cornwall he lived variously at St Ives, Redruth and Tintagel.

At the 1895 Opening of NAG, he exhibited Moonrise in January which was reviewed as 'one of the finest landscapes in the Show'. Helped to run the painting school at St Ives with Julius OLSSON. Later he began and ran his own school with the help of his wife Gertrude ROWE, also an artist, with OLSSON acting as 'Visitor' artist.

Talmage excelled in demonstrating the art of oil colour impressions drawn loosely with the brush. His relaxed teaching manner with the emphasis on outdoor sketching - combined with once a year trips to Picardy - made him extremely popular among students.

Charles MARRIOTT echoes this reputation in the Cornish Review (1950): 'One of the most talented and certainly the most popular of the St Ives' painters was Algernon Talmage, a most attractive personality; modest, slightly reserved but always ready to do a kind action for a friend. His right hand had been injured in a gun accident -- he was rather sensitive about this-- and he painted with his left, as did, incidentally, Stanhope FORBES.'

He left St Ives in about 1907 (address at London Arts Club from 1910), having parted from Gertrude, on the strength of some successes with his work in London. In 1918 he was appointed official war artist in France for the Canadian Government. Up until the 1920s he returned frequently to Cornwall, continuing an interest in STISA from afar. He contributed paintings to a St Ives show in Cheltenham and then accepted Hon membership in 1928. With him in London was Hilda FEARON until her early death.

media

Landscape, portrait and animal painting, printmaking, and etching, teacher

works and access

Access to Work: Bath; Bristol; Bristol; BM; Blackpool; Commonwealth Club (London); Guildhall (London); Huddersfield; M; Newcastle; Newport; Oldham; Preston; QMDH; Sheffield; Tate; Yarmouth; York (National Railway Museum)//Adelaide; Buenos Aires; Cork; Dunedin; Ottawa (Canadian War Museum); Perth; Pittsburgh; Sydney; Wellington

exhibitions

RA (140); ROI (30);  INT;  NAG 1895, Opening; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg 1911, 3rd prize for The Kingdom of the Winds; 1912, 1920, International Art Exhibition, 2nd Medal and $1,000 for By Cornish Seas

Notts Castle (2); Whitechapel (3); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg (1912); STISA (1928-1939) & Touring

Posthumous:

Artists from Cornwall exhibition, RWE, Bristol, 1992 (selected)

memberships

RBA: 1903; ROI: 1908; STISA: 1928-39; RWA; ARE; ARA(1922) RA(1929)

misc further info

 

references

Personal bibliography: F Stokes 'The Landscape Paintings of Mr Algernon M Talmage' [in] The Studio, V 42, 1907; Author of Series of six self-illustrated articles on 'Out of Door Painting' [in] The Artist, Vol III, Mar-Aug 1932 including a coloured plate of The Bather and in the June 1932 his Self-portrait submitted to the RA; 'Famous Artist No 10' [in] The Artist Vol III Oct 1932.

General bibliography:

Hardie (1995) 100 Years/ Diary; (2009) Artists/Newlyn & West Cornwall 1880-1940 p279 col pl: November Morning

Hoyle, H (Feb 2011 Women Artists in Cornwall http://cornishmuse.blogspot.com) 'Emily Carr, Talmage and Tregenna'

Johnson & Greutzner

Newton et al Painting at the Edge

Notts Exh Cat (repr Hardie 2009, 'Defining Exhibition'

RA Directory

RWE (1992) Artists from Cornwall, Bristol

Whitechapel Exh Cat (repr Hardie 2009, 'Defining Exhibition')

Tovey (2000) George Fagan Bradshaw - Submariner & Marine Artist, etc. STISA Principal members list p228; (2003) Creating a Splash (Illus); (2009) St Ives/ Social History

C Wood, Dictionary of British Art, Vol 4, p 514; (2008) Victorian Painters;

Wormleighton, Morning Tide;