He was born at Fifield Rectory, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, son of Revd John Mayow Talmage (1 August 1813-31 January 1883) and his second wife Susan Savage née Penkivil (30 December 1841-2 March 1915), who married at Kensington, London in 1866, he married his first wife Louisa South at Charlbury, Oxfordshire on 23 January 1845, she died at Chipping Norton in 1863. In 1871, Algernon was a newly born child, living at Fifield Rectory with his parents, 56-year-old John and 29-year-old Susan, with a younger sibling John Mayow Lionel 2. As a child Talmage had an accident with a gun injuring his right hand resulting in Talmage painting with his left hand.
Algernon studied at Herkomer’s Art School at Bushey and at St Ives, Cornwall. He married at The Church of St Stephen, Treleigh, near Redruth, Cornwall on 10 August 1896, Charlotte Ann Gertrude Rowe (21 September 1866-19 April 1941) who was known as Annie, but they later separated.
Talmage is principally known as a painter of plein-air landscapes and pastorals in a restrained yet sparkling Impressionist manner, and for tutoring Canadian artist Emily Carr (1871-1945), during her studies at St Ives when she lived and worked in his studio, ‘The Cabin’ on Westcotts Quay, St Ives. Talmage came to London around 1907 and in 1914 was the official First World War artist for Canada in France. Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy on 20 April 1922 and a member on 25 April 1929 and was also a member of the Royal Society of British Artists from October 1902 and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters from 1908.
He exhibited at Barbizon House; Chenil Galleries; Cooling Galleries; Fine Art Society; Grosvenor Gallery; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Goupil Gallery; Royal Scottish Academy; Heffer Gallery, Cambridge and elsewhere including at the Ipswich Fine Art Club in 1923, an oil ‘The Banks of the Stour’ and also exhibited with the Sole Bay Group. Algernon Mayow Talmage died at Clarks House, Sherfield English, near Romsey, Hampshire on 14 September 1939.
