Oil painting on canvas, Sir William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong of Cragside (1810-1900), by Mary Lemon Waller (Bideford 1851 – 1931), signed and dated 1898. A head-and-shoulders portrait of Lord Armstrong of Cragside in old age, turned to the left, looking down, wearing a dark jacket, brown waistcoat, and black cravat. Mary Lemon Waller was a portrait and genre painter who studied at the Royal Academy where she exhibited from 1877 to 1904. She was the daughter of the Reverend Hugh Fowler of Bumwood, Gloucestershire and married the genre and animal painter Samuel Edmund Waller (1850 – 1903). She and her husband were recorded living in St John’s Wood, London in 1881. She was also a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London in 1925 and exhibited sixty works there as well as the Society of Women Artists, London, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London, Dudley Gallery and New Gallery, London, Grosvenor Gallery, London, the Manchester City Art Gallery and at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Provenance: Presumably commissioned by Sir William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong of Cragside (1810-1900); recorded at Cragside by E. Rimbault Dibdin, ‘Lord Armstrong’s Collection of Modern Pictures. II’, in The Magazine of Art, April 1891; thence by descent; transferred by the Treasury to The National Trust in 1977 via the National Land Fund, aided by 3rd Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside (1919 – 1987).

Marks and inscriptions: Bottom left: M L. Waller. / 1898.

Text from the National Trust website

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Cragside, Rothbury, Northumberland
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Mary Lemon Waller (1851-1931)
Date: 1898

Image Details
Date: 21 April 2026
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/21s
ISO: 800
Licensing: Image of a National Trust asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Oil painting on canvas, Winifred Margaret Watson-Armstrong (1894-1912) by Mary Lemon Waller (Bideford 1851-1931), circa 1908. A full-length portrait of a young girl, the daughter of William Watson-Armstrong (1863-1941) and his first wife Winifreda Adye (1860-1914), standing on the beach at Bamburgh, turned slightly to the right and looking back at the viewer, her hands resting on a golf club. She wears a white blouse and dark skirt, with a red scarf and a red ribbon round a straw hat. Mary Lemon Waller was a portrait and genre painter who studied at the Royal Academy where she exhibited from 1877 to 1904. She was the daughter of the Reverend Hugh Fowler of Bumwood, Gloucestershire and married the genre and animal painter Samuel Edmund Waller (1850 – 1903). She and her husband were recorded living in St John’s Wood, London in 1881. She was also a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London in 1925 and exhibited sixty works there as well as the Society of Women Artists, London, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London, Dudley Gallery and New Gallery, London, Grosvenor Gallery, London, the Manchester City Art Gallery and at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Provenance: Armstrong collection. Transferred by the Treasury to The National Trust in 1977 via the National Land Fund, aided by 3rd Baron Armstrong of Bamburgh and Cragside (1919 – 1987).

Bottom left: Bottom left: M. L. Waller

Text from the National Trust website

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Cragside, Rothbury, Northumberland
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Mary Lemon Waller (1851 – 1931)
Date: circa 1908

Image Details
Date: 20 June 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 320
Licensing: Image of a National Trust asset. This image cannot be licensed.