North Shore Canadian Art
Investment Quality Important Canadian Art

Franklin Milton Armington (1876-1941)

Title: “Songeuse”

Medium: Etching and Drypoint, ed. 20/50

Period: Dated 1924

Size: 6.75” x 4.75”

Price $550

Frank Armington was born in Fordwich, Ontario. He began his studies in 1892 under J.W.L. Forster and continued with the noted portraitist for seven years. It was during these classes that he met Caroline Wilkinson, his future wife. In 1900 Frank was in Paris and studied at the Academie Julian under Benjamin Constant and John-Paul Laurens. In 1903, while living in Manitoba, Frank became a founding member and first Vice President of the Manitoba Society of Artists. He exhibited his work at the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibitions from 1902-1905 and then returned to Paris. Here he attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere with his wife, Caroline, and then re-entered the Academie Julian. One of his paintings was accepted for the Salon d’Automne in Paris and his work would continue to be accepted into the French Salons for some years to come. Frank began to etch in 1906. In 1910, the National Gallery of Canada purchased four of his etchings. Around this time, he and Caroline had a joint show of their work at the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts in Halifax. In 1911, the National Gallery of Canada purchased three more etchings. He traveled across Canada with his wife, Caroline on a Canadian Pacific Railway commission; the works are illustrated in the book Sixty Days in Canada. In 1915, Frank donated 28 etchings to the New York Public Library. In 1928, the Library of Congress purchased fourteen of his etchings including seven nudes. In 1929 Frank and Caroline held a joint show at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario). His etchings are in countless international collections in Canada, the United States, and Europe both public and private.