Algernon Talmage


Algernon Talmage was a minor British Impressionist painter.
Talmage is best known for tutoring Emily Carr during her studies at St Ives in England when he lived and worked in his studio which was then called 'The Cabin' located on Westcotts Quay, St Ives. His criticism was a significant early influence on her work, encouraging her earliest forays into the forest paintings that would eventually become her trademark. Carr's vivid palette grew from his critical reminder that "there is sunlight in the shadows." The well-known Australian painter Will Ashton was another of his students.
Talmage is also well known for creating the painting 'The Founding of Australia' which was commissioned by the founder of the Australasian Pioneers Club to celebrate the sesquicentenary of 1938. The finished painting was unveiled at the Royal Academy of the Arts exhibition in London in 1937.
The painting depicts the moment Governor Phillip proposed a toast to King George III, on the evening of 26 January 1788, the day that the Fleet moved from Botany Bay to Sydney Cove. The painting is a celebration of righteousness and importance of colonisation, and a statement of the power of the British Empire.
He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in October 1902.