Career
From 1914, Arbuthnot ran a portrait studio in London"s New Bond Street, in the early 20th century photographing many celebrities including the actress Lillah McCarthy, the pianist Harriet Cohen and the poet Robert Nichols. Also in 1914, he was one of the signatories - the only photographer - to the manifesto of the Vorticism movement published in the first issue of the literary magazine BLAST. He combined his interests in photography and art by using gum and oil pigment processes, after joining the Linked Ring making increasingly controversial anti-naturalistic gum prints. After World War I, he gave up photography in favour of painting, working in oils, watercolours and gouaches.
(The settlement from Fletcher for her upkeep was instrumental in Arbuthnot financing the launch of his London studio).
