Born in Kingston, Ontario, the daughter of William Armstrong, a civil servant in Ottawa. She studied under William Chase at the ASL/NYC (1877-80); at the South Kensington Schools, London; in Munich under Duveneck and Currier; print-making with Mortimer Menpes, Pont-Aven, Brittany, France (c. 1881-83). She worked in drypoint, charcoal, water colours and oils. She had a free style in her drypoints with expressive sketch lines but later finer work in charcoal, oils, water colours and gouache. Her paintings revealed considerable professional skill. She did genre scenes, especially of women working in the fields or in their kitchen sometimes with their families around a table; and other folk, old and young. Principally a figure painter. She married British painter Stanhope Forbes in 1889.
With her husband, she was co-founder of the Newlyn School of Painting, Newlyn, Cornwall, England (1899-1912). She wrote and illustrated “King Arthur’s Wood” (1904). She died in Newlyn at the age of 53. The National Gallery of Canada has a fine collection of her work, which includes drypoints, paintings in charcoal, water colour, gouache and one oil. All but one of her works were acquired through a gift of her husband and her son, W.A.S. Forbes, 2nd Lieut., British Army, who made the joint gift with his father shortly before he was killed in action at Guillemont, 3 Sept., 1916. E.F.B Johnston, writing on Canadian painting in 1914, perhaps unaware of her death noted, “Her figure painting is full of action and has a delightful sense of rhythm. Her colour is brilliant and of a singularity pure quality….”
Literature Source:
"A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume 1: A-F, 5th Edition, Revised and Expanded", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1997
