Oil & Mixed Media Surrealist Portrait On Board By John Rutherford Armstrong ARA

The wonderful surrealist oil and mixed media on board, showing a half-length portrait of a young to middle aged lady with a further face looming in the dark background, the whole with knitted effect clothing and navy blue paint trickles, being monogramed JA, and signed verso for John Rutherford Armstrong ARA (1893-1973).

The condition very good with no traces of any restoration. The rather luminous frame may be later.

John Rutherford Armstrong ARA (14 November 1893 – 19 May 1973) was a British artist and muralist who also designed for film and theatre productions. He is most notable for the Surrealist paintings he produced. Armstrong was born in Hastings in Sussex. His father was a clergyman and Armstrong was educated at St. Paul's School in London. He studied law at St. John's College, Oxford, but switched to art and became a student at St John's Wood Art School throughout 1913 and 1914. Armstrong served with some distinction in the Royal Field Artillery in Salonika during World War One before returning briefly to complete his studies at St John's Wood Art School. After a period of some economic hardship, Armstrong began to build a career as a theatre designer in London and to gain a client base for his artworks. He received a commission to decorate a room in the Portman Square home of the art collector Samuel Courtauld, and also painted a frieze for the ballroom at 1 Kensington Palace Gardens. In 1938 Armstrong held an exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery which featured Surrealist works set in English landscapes such as Dreaming Head.

After the War, Armstrong turned away from surrealism and towards the greater use of symbols in his paintings. Armstrong was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy in 1966 and, despite developing Parkinson's disease, he continued to paint and travel until his death in London in 1973. A memorial exhibition for Armstrong was held at the Royal Academy in 1975

A hugely fascinating work by a well-respected and highly regarded artist.