Caroline Helena Armington

Caroline Armington (1875-1939 )
"Pond de la Tornelle "
Etching, 1916.
LFAC #2004:03:01

Biography

Carolina Helena (Wilkinson) Armington was born September 11, 1875, in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. She studied art in 1890 under J.W.L. Forster in Toronto where she met her future husband, the artist Frank Armington. After 1892, she taught in Halifax and became a nursing student in Guelph, Ontario. In 1899, Armington worked as a nurse in New York at Miss Alston’s Hospital.

From 1899-1900, Armington was a private nurse in Toronto. In 1900, she traveled to England and France, arriving finally in Paris where she married Frank Armington. In 1901, Armington relocated to Winnipeg where she began giving painting lessons. In 1905, Armington moved to Paris with her husband where she attended the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. She also studied at Academie Julian, occasionally working as a private nurse to supplement their income. Armington started to etch scenes in Paris, eventually etching scenes in England, Germany, and Italy, specializing in architectural and landscape etchings.

The Armingtons visited Algeria and made etchings of landscapes they found in that location. During World War I, Armington worked for the American Ambulance unit in Paris as a nurse. In 1918, she was commissioned to execute etchings for the Canadian War Memorials portfolio. She also etched scenes of Paris protected by sandbags.

In 1920, Armington began making etchings of famous cathedrals in Chartres, Rheims, Amiens, Rouen, and Tours. She continued to receive commissions including a commission to etch the ocean liner, the Belgenland of the Red Star Line. Her first solo exhibition of paintings, entitled “Tableaux par Caroline Armington,” was held in Paris in 1923. In 1924, she had an exhibition in New York at the Ralston Gallery followed by exhibits in several other venues including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Armington donated numerous etchings to institutions such as the Des Moines Association of Fine Arts (now the Des Moines Art Center), the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress during her career. She continued to travel widely with her husband and produce etchings as well as paintings. Together they exhibited throughout Europe, the United States and Canada. Their works are in many significant public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of art, the National Gallery of Ottawa, and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. She died on October 25, 1939, in New York.

The etching by Armington in the Fine Arts Collection was donated by Jane Kemp in 2004. Entitled Pont de la Tournelle, it is a scene of the back of Notre Dame cathedral with a bridge in the foreground which she executed from various locations in a number of etchings. The bridge was later destroyed by the Paris authorities.

Ref: Armington, Caroline. Twelve Little Views of Paris. Paris: Bishop and Garrett, 1900; Braide, Janet and Nancy Parke-Taylor. Caroline and Frank Armington: Canadian Painter-Etchers in Paris. Brampton, Ontario: The Art Gallery of Peel, 1990; “Mrs. Armington, Etcher, Painter.” Obituary. The New York Times, October 28, 1939; North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995; Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.

Updated 03/11/2009