Algernon Talmage, 1871–1939
He was born at Fifield, Oxfordshire in 1871, and in 1892 he joined the Herkomer school in Bushey along with Lucy Kemp-Welch, and, like her, became a keen painter of landscapes and horses. Around 1894 he moved to St. Ives, Cornwall and became part of St. Ives School. He was an Impressionist, primarily as a painter of landscapes and animals. He moved to London in 1907 and held his first solo exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in London in 1909. During the 1914-1918 war he was an official war artist for Canada in France.
He is widely known as tutor to Emily Carr during her studies at St Ives: he advised her that ‘there is sunshine in the shadows’: Talmage’s palette often shows the stunning brightness of light found in Cornwall. His paintings were typically made ‘on-the-spot’ and he was able to achieve an impressive intensity of colour and light. His paintings show a freshness of approach in contrast to the solidity of Herkomer’s art.
He exhibited widely and had 140 artworks shown at the Royal Academy.
