Mary Davis (artist)

Lady Mary Davis, née Halford (22 March 1866 – 30 October 1941) was a British artist known as a designer and painter of fans.[1]

Lady Mary Davis
Born
Mary Halford

22 March 1866
London, England
Died30 October 1941(1941-10-30) (aged 75)
Romsey, Hampshire
NationalityBritish
EducationRidley Art School
Known forPainting
Spouse(s)Sir Edmund Davis (m. 1889-1939, his death)

Biography

Davis 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 1986 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 hold an example of her painted fans.[4]

In 1889 Davis 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 Davise's 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
  1. Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 4 Cossintino-Dyck. Editions Grund, Paris. 2006. ISBN 2 7000 3074 5.
  2. Grant M. Waters (1975). Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  3. Alicia Foster (2004). Tate Women Artists. Tate Publishing. ISBN 1-85437-311-0.
  4. "Masques et Bergamasque (Fan)". Tate. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  5. "Fan: The Romantic Excursion 1899". Tate. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  6. Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1 85149 106 6.
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