London, Royal Academy, John Armstrong Retrospective, February – March 1975 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 125). This exhibition travelled to Plymouth, City Museum & Art Gallery, May – June 1975;
Preston, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, June – July 1975 and Newcastle-on-Tyne, Laing Art Gallery, August 1975;
Colchester, The Minories, John Armstrong, January – February 1977 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 20);
King’s Lynn, Fermoy Art Gallery, John Armstrong Paintings, 1977 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 12);
London, New Grafton Gallery, John Armstrong, March – April 1984 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 13);
Woking, The Lightbox, Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, 6 March – 15 April 2012;
Woking, The Lightbox, Dreams and Nightmares, 22 May – 15 July 2012;
Hastings, Jerwood Gallery, Century: 100 Modern British Artists, 23 October 2016 – 8 January 2017;
Hull, Ferens Art Gallery, Reflection: British Art in an Age of Change, 17 August 2019 – 5 January 2020
Literature:
Andrew Lambirth, John Armstrong: The Paintings, London, 2009 (illustrated, p. 121, 204, no. 479)
Armstrong found the subject for this painting in the old story of an African king who falls in love with Penelophon, a poor woman he sees from his palace window. From Shakespeare onwards, writers and artists have been inspired by this story that upsets the social order by allowing a person of lowly birth to achieve high rank. The tale became a model for George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. Armstrong’s take on the subject is clear and strange, with umbrellas adding a contemporary note.
