page_title: Edward Armitage
section_title: Westminster Competitions
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Armitage / Westminster Competitions
caption_attribution_description: English: http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_publications_and_archives/parliamentary_archives/archives___the_palace_of_westminster.cfm Prize cartoon by en:Edward Armitage of en:Caesar's invasions of Britain, c.1843, from the en:Palace of Westminster archives.
context_page_description: Edward Armitage RA was an English Victorian-era painter whose work focused on historical, classical and biblical subjects.
context_section_description: In 1843 Armitage returned to London, where he entered competitions for the decoration of the new Palace of Westminster, the old Houses of Parliament having been destroyed by fire in 1834.  To organise and oversee this project, a Royal Commission had been appointed in 1841, the President of which was Queen Victoria's new Consort, Prince Albert.  Decorations were to be executed in fresco and were to illustrate subjects from British history or from the works of Spenser, Shakespeare or Milton.  Competitions were held for appropriate designs ('cartoons'), with a number of leading artists commissioned to take part.  The first competition entries were unveiled in Westminster Hall in the summer of 1843 and attracted considerable attention from the public.  Armitage's cartoon, The Landing of Julius Caesar in Britain, secured one of the three first prizes of £300.  He won a further prize in 1845 in a subsequent Westminster competition for his cartoon The Spirit of Religion.  Although neither of these cartoons was executed in fresco, Armitage did execute two frescoes in the Poets' Gallery off the Upper Waiting Hall: The Thames and its Tributaries (also referred to as The Personification of the Thames) (1852), from the poetry of Alexander Pope; and The Death of Marmion (1854), from Sir Walter Scott's poem.  Unfortunately frescoes were ill-suited to the atmosphere of 19th-century London, and many started to disintegrate almost as soon as they were completed.
  Armitage won one of the first-class premiums in 1847 for his oil painting The Battle of Meanee, which was subsequently purchased by Queen Victoria.  In this battle, General Sir Charles Napier brought the provinces of Sindh under the dominion of Great Britain, an account of which was written by his brother, Sir William Napier. Armitage consulted both brothers for detailed information on the battle and he used sketches of the locality lent by Sir Charles. However, the painting was the subject of much controversy, with doubts expressed that the war had been justified. The 1847 The Art Union review concluded with the following: "Notwithstanding the great ability displayed by Mr. Armitage in this production, which of its class, has never been excelled in England, we cannot but regret that he did not select a theme more purely historical - one more honourable to our nation than the slaughter of thousands - of whom, after all, we were the oppressors".  Thackeray, writing in Punch under the pseudonym of Professor Byles, also disapproved of the subject-matter: "With respect to the third prize - a Battle of Meeanee - in this extraordinary piece they are stabbing, kicking, cutting, slashing, and poking each other about all over the picture.  A horrid sight!  I like to see the British lion mild and good-humoured ... not fierce, as Mr. Armitage has shown him."
caption: Caesar's first invasion of Britain, by Edward Armitage, c1843
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