Mary Davis, Lady Davis (née Halford; 22 March 1866 – 30 October 1941) was a British artist known as a designer and painter of fans.[1]
Mary Davis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mary Halford 22 March 1866 London, England |
| Died | 30 October 1941 (aged 75) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Ridley Art School |
| Known for | Painting |
| Title | Lady Davis |
| Spouse | Sir Edmund Davis (m. 1889–1939, his death) |
Biography
editDavis was born in London and studied art at the Ridley Art School.[2] She exhibited landscape paintings and painted fans at the Royal Academy in London from 1886 onwards and at the Paris Salon from 1898.[2][1]
In 1914 Davis had a joint exhibition with Charles Conder, another noted fan artist of the time, in New York at the Colnaghi & Obach gallery.[3] In 1919 Davis shared an exhibition, entitled Pictures, Portraits, Fans and Frivolities, with Laura Anning Bell and Constance Rea at the Fine Art Society in London.[3]
Davis also exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, the Grosvenor Gallery and with both the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers.[3] The Tate holds an example of her painted fans.[4]
In 1889 she had married Edmund Davis, who was knighted in 1927.[2] Edmund Davis had made a fortune from mining in South Africa and when he settled in London, the couple began assembling a substantial art collection that included paintings by Old Masters, such as Canaletto and Rembrandt, plus more contemporary artists including Whistler.[3] The collection was exhibited to the public at the French Gallery in 1915.[5] They also commissioned artists, including Charles Conder, to decorate their Holland Park home and also Chilham Castle, which they owned until after Edmund's death in 1939.[6][4] In due course, the Davises donated works from their art collection to the Iziko South African National Gallery and to the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.[3] They also donated some items to the Tate collection.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 4 Cossintino-Dyck. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006. ISBN 2 7000 3074 5.
- ^ a b c Grant M. Waters (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950. Eastbourne Fine Art.
- ^ a b c d e Alicia Foster (2004). Tate Women Artists. Tate Publishing. ISBN 1-85437-311-0.
- ^ a b "Masques et Bergamasque (Fan)". Tate. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
- ^ a b "Fan: The Romantic Excursion 1899". Tate. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
- ^ Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1 85149 106 6.