Denholm Armour

Denholm Armour and his love of nature, especially horses, was closely interwoven with his art. He always carried a sketchbook when he went out hunting. His commitment to his horses later brought him to convert one half of his studio to a stable, and he worked as an animal painter and cartoonist. Armour studied in St. Andrew’s and Edinburgh, but after a stay in Morocco he moved to London where he had a studio together with his colleague Phil May. After some years in London he moved to Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, where he ran a farmhouse together with his then best friend, Joseph Crawhall. During World War I Armour was in charge of a depot in Saloniki, Greece. In 1919 he received the Order of the British Empire. He published almost 1,500 drawings in Punch alone.

In 1928 Armour submitted four well-known prints (approximately 12” x 18”) from a fox hunting series: The Master, The Huntsman, The First Whip, The Second Whip. Although the works submitted in 1932, Stag Hunting in Devonshire, Stag Hunting in Devon, at Porlock Weir could not be identified, it should be noted that Armour illustrated the book “British Sport Past and Present” by E.D. Cuming, which included a chapter titled “Stag Hunting”.