Benita Eleanora Armstrong, nee Benita Jaeger later The Lady Strauss, (1907–2004) was British sculptor known for her bronze figurative work.

Biography

Armstrong was born into a Jewish family in Germany and moved to London in 1926. In London she lived in a flat above a restaurant in

Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ''s ...

and for several years was in a relationship with

Clive Bell Arthur Clive Heward Bell (16 September 1881 – 17 September 1964) was an English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group. He developed the art theory known as significant form. Biography Origins Bell was born in East ...

. After that relationship ended she met and, in 1932, married the British artist John Armstrong. Benita Armstrong studied under the Viennese sculptor Georg Ehrlich and was a frequent participant in group exhibitions in London and elsewhere as well as regularly having work included in the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

Summer Exhibitions. A solo exhibition of her work was held at the Drian Galleries in London in 1981. She and Armstrong separated and she eventually married the Labour Party politician

George Russell Strauss George Russell Strauss, Baron Strauss PC (18 July 1901 – 5 June 1993) was a long-serving British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 46 years and was Father of the House of Commons from 1974 to 1979. Early life ...

with who she had two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Benita 1907 births 2004 deaths 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century British women artists 20th-century German women artists Jewish women artists English people of German-Jewish descent

Strauss Strauss, Strauß or Straus is a common Germanic surname. Outside Germany and Austria ''Strauß'' is always spelled ''Strauss'' (the letter " ß" is not used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland). In classical music, "Strauss" usually ref ...

Spouses of life peers German emigrants to the United Kingdom