Elizabeth Adela Forbes (née Armstrong; 29 December 1859 – 16 March 1912) was a Canadian painter who was primarily active in the UK.

Born in her father's old age, she was educated privately in Canada and then allowed to further her artistic studies in England with her mother as chaperone.

[4] While in Brittany she sent paintings to London for sale at the Royal Institute and all of the items that she sent were sold on the opening day of the show.

[2] Some of her etchings, influenced by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Walter Sickert,[1] were collected by her Pont-Aven mentor, Mortimer Menpes.

She established a studio in Newlyn, sharing the building with a fisherman who stored and repaired nets in the space.

[7] Going against societal roles for married women, Elizabeth Forbes continued to be an active and successful artist after marriage.

[4] The Newlyners gained popular approval because their subject matter fell into the traditional and still vital categories of Victorian genre painting.

They also depicted the positive and nostalgic image of provincial life and the moral values their urban audience desired.

Exterior scenes incorporating recognizable sites and local, nonprofessional models distinguished Newlyn work.Forbes held an exhibition called Children and Child Lore in London at the Fine Art Society in 1900.

[13] The main character based upon her friend Thomas Cooper Gotch, Forbes wrote and illustrated King Arthur's Wood, a children's book for her son that was published in 1904.