Graham Robertson and Maxwell Armfield rubbed shoulders with the same fashionable set in London, and exhibited their Pre-Raphaelitic works at the same galleries (Rowley, Carfax, et al).

Armfield was a painter, a decorative artist and a writer. He was born in Ringwood, Hampshire, and was educated at Birmingham School of Art, then in Paris and Italy, though his pictures retained a distinct Birmingham Arts and Crafts quality.  

His delicate early work is in watercolour, before he began to paint mostly in tempera. He was a floriographer, but was happy to paint flowers for their own sake, simply and without symbolism.

The Fine Art Society dealt in his work for many years, although he also exhibited a great deal in various other places, including the Royal Academy, the New English Arts Club and the Leicester Galleries, and his works can presently be found in various provincial and overseas galleries, and the British Museum.

Despite such a prolific painting career, he also found time to illustrate various books and write A Manual of Tempera Painting, Tempera Painting Today, An Artist in America and An Artist in Italy.