In the Mainstream of Irish Naturalism: The Art of Lilian Lucy Davidson, 1879-1954

Irish Arts Review

In the Mainstream of Irish Naturalism: The Art of Lilian Lucy Davidson, 1879-1954Author(s): Katherine CahillSource: Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Vol. 15 (1999), pp. 34-45Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20493043 .

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IN THE MAINSTREAM OF IRISH NATURALISM THE ART OF LILIAN LUCY DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

ilian Lucy Davidson was born on 26

anuary 1879 at Castle Terrace in

Bray, county Wicklow. The daughter of

Edward Ellice Davidson and Lucy Rising

(n6e Doe), she was the sixth child, follow

ing Robert Francis (1873), Eva Marion

(1874), Norah Helen (1875), Kathleen

Mary (1876) and Anne (1877). Later

born children were Mabel Margarette

(1880), Duncan Edward (1881) and

Lionel Victor (1885). There were two infants, both named Lucy, who died shortly after birth and are buried with their parents in

St Paul's Church of Ireland cemetery in Bray. Other children

may have been born to the family but unregistered. What is cer

tain is that the mother of all these children, Lucy Rising, died in

1888, aged thirty-eight. Though no relation, the late actress and friend of Lilian

Davidson, Miss Jennifer Davidson, recalled her saying 'they were as poor as church-mice" and well they might have been as

Edward Ellice Davidson was promoted in 1877 to the position of

Clerk of Petty Sessions2 at Bray, Enniskerry and Cabinteely at a

salary of ?85 per annum. He also acted as agent for Lawes

Manure Co' to supplement the family income. In a letter to the

Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, now the Ulster

Museum, in 1936,4 Lilian Davidson says she was educated pri

vately but family circumstances do not suggest this possibility so it begs the question as to where she

received her early education. A Guide to

Bray, published in 1884 when Lilian was

a little girl of five, tells us 'its schools,

both male and female, afford the means

of first-class education for the children of people of every rank of life.' Students

later recalled that Lilian Davidson and

her sisters were highly intellectual.5 It is speculation, but perhaps justified,

to surmise that Lilian and her family

attended the Bray Industrial Exhibition in 1893.6 In the 1894 Report of the

Headmaster of Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA), James Brenan, a

reference is made to 'a selection of stu

dents' works made to illustrate the

course of instruction in the school'

which was lent to the Bray Exhibition.

In 1895, Lilian Davidson is first men

tioned as a Prizewinner in the Annual

Report and List of Prizes at the School.

She would then have been sixteen. She

went on to win prizes in 1896, and in

1897 secured a Royal Dublin Society Scholarship and Free Studentship. This

was also the year of her father's death. In

1899, while still a student, she was com

missioned to do some work for the

Dublin department store, Switzers.7 In Mr Brenan's speech at the Annual

Distribution of Prizes he remarked, 'Messrs. Switzer & Co. have given

Miss Davidson an engagement to draw

costumes for them.. .I am always glad

when any of our students are brought

into direct relations with the applica

tion of art to industry.'

In 1912, when The Bonfire was exhibited at the Water Colour

Society's annual exhibition, it marked the first documented work of Lilian Davidson's long association with the Society.

Family circumstances had changed radically since the 1890s and she was now living at 13 Gulistan Terrace, off Mount Pleasant

Avenue in Rathmines, Dublin, with two of her sisters, Anne and

Mabel. On the death of Edward Ellice Davidson, it appears from

census returns that the girls of the family removed from Bray to

the Ranelagh/Rathmines area with their aunt, Sarah Marion

Doe, and the boys, it is speculated, left Ireland for Canada. They

never again appear in the records.

From their Gulistan Terrace address, the reduced family grouping earned their bread, Mabel as hospital clerk, Lilian as

artist in drawing and painting, and Annie as clerk in a patent

food store. Evidence that Lilian travelled widely is documented almost

yearly in her exhibited works represent ing the countries and places she visited.

Her entries in the 'Sale of Paintings to

assist Belgian Refugees' in 1914 shows her to have been in the south of

England and Wales. In the scattering of

the family, Lilian's sister Kathleen had

by this time moved to Uckfield, East

Sussex, so perhaps it is reasonable to

suppose she made painting forays to

and from there. A connection between

Stanhope Forbes and Lilian Davidson

has been posited and it makes interest

ing speculation.8 An early work exhib ited in the Royal Hibernian Academy

in 1916, believed to be first called The

Wharf and later to bear the title The

Harbour, St. Ives, (Fig 12)9 largely bears

out Forbes' principles of using a bright

palette, square brush technique and

strong impasto highlights laid on with

softer brushmark, principles she carried out down the succeeding decades. Though not always employing a bright

palette, she did apply his adjuration of

'strength - strength of impression,

strength of illumination, of contrasts.' In examining Lilian Davidson's work

Katherine Cahill

recalls the life and work

of a revered artist, writer,

and teacher

mu 2. Lilian DAVIDSON: Jack B. Yeats. Artist (1871-1957). 1938. Oil on canvas, 93 x 74 cm.(National Gallery of

Ireland). This affectionate portrait was part of the Lilian Davidson Bequest to the National Gallery of

Ireland in 1955.

(Opposite) 1. Mainie JELLETT (1897-1944): Portrait of Lilian Davidson. Pencil on paper, 24.2 x 20.3 cm. (Private collection). 'She always wore in all weathers

(or so it seemed !) a straw hat embroidered with raffia flowers.

35

I11ISH AvrIs R EVIEW



IN THE MAINSTREAM OF IRISH NATURALISM THE ART OF LILIAN LU(Y DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

3. Lilian DAVIDSON: Portrait of Sarah Purser, Artist (I1849-1943). Crayon on

paper, 36 x 30.5 cm. Signed in monogram. (National Gallery of Ireland). This

vigorous and uncompromising drawing was bequeathed by the artist to the

National Gallery of Ireland. Lilian played an energetic part in the artistic life in

Dublin which including attendance at Sarah Purser's 'second Tuesdays'.

4. Lilian D)AvDsoN: Portrait of joseph Holloway, FRIBA. Oil on canvas, 7 1.1 x 7 1.1 cm. Signed with monogram top left hand corner.

(Collection the Abbey Theatre). Lilian Davidson was friends with Hilton

Edwards, Michael McLiammoir and Joseph Holloway, the great theatre-goer and chronicler.

it must always be remembered that, unlike many of her well-off

women contemporaries, she was a journeyman artist. She earned her living through the sale of exhibited works, private commissions, teaching and the proceeds of her writing. This necessity recalled by several of her young students'" gives Lilian Davidson her defining quality as an artist, that of empathy

with her subject. Nowhere is this empathy more potent than in the night

scenes in which she excelled (Figs 6 & 8). In Cottages - Keel,

Achill (Fig 8), exhibited at the RHA in 1938, the scene is one of

perfect tranquillity. The figure in the foreground is deep in

thought; shawled against the harm of the evening, she carries

the baby home. The composition of rough road, cottages, hay rick and haggard walls leads down to the deep sea, the moun

tains and sky, the whole suffused in tones of purple and azure

blue. Light streaming from the half-doors and windows of the

cottages adds warmth and welcome to a scene which could oth

erwise have been somewhat chilling. The stillness of the evening is palpable. As one of a large circle of artists in the

1920s and 30s evoking Irish rural life, Lilian Davidson depicts the peasant woman, not as a mere cipher, but an image capable

of evoking an emotional response in the viewer.

She had begun her Western peasant cycle of paintings in the

1920s in county Donegal, but by the late 1930s had full mastery

of her technique and subject matter. The early influence of Jack

B Yeats is very much in evidence in this group of paintings.

Their approaches at this early period differ; where Yeats in his

genre subjects portrays energy, joie de vivre, physical prowess, and athletic achievement in every line, she is of more sombre

cast, but her use of mass and space are strongly influenced by

him. She painted Yeats's portrait in 1938 (Fig 2)," underlining

their relationship. The portrait reflects a warmth and familiarity

between sitter and artist. His great achievement as artist and

teacher is suggested in the monumentality of form.

That Lilian Davidson travelled to continental Europe is well

documented'2 in her exhibits for the RHA and Water Colour

Society. From the 1920s she was spending painting holidays in

France, Belgium and Switzerland. The Flax Pullers (Fig 10) from

1921 depicts the labourers of the field working in harmony and

shows in its pyramidal composition, pure colour, and play of

light and shade, an influence of French Impressionism.

Unlike her friend Mainie Jellett, and many of her Irish gentle

women contemporaries, Lilian Davidson could not, out of eco

nomic and family necessity, spend long study-periods abroad

where she might have been more influenced by the Modernist

movement. Thus, she was not in the vanguard with Mainie

Jellett, Evie Hone or Mary Swanzy in bringing experimental art

to Ireland, although given her involvement with The Dublin

Painters' Society, whose aim was 'to encourage artists whose

tendencies are in harmony with contemporary world move

ments', her interest in the avant-garde is unquestioned. Never

theless, she was rooted in the somewhat narrow, Victorian focus

of the South Kensington system (as promoted by James Brenan

at the DMSA), aimed at achieving a teaching qualification, and

36

IRISH ARTS REVIEW



IN Tim4E MAINSrnWRAXE OF hiustH NATURAFUIIASM THE ART OF LILIAN LucY DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

5. Lilian DAVIDSON: The Country Races. Oil on canvas, 58.4 x 68.6 cm. Signed with monogram lower left. (Private collection). This painting includes a self-portrait of Lilian Davidson as the seated figure looking out of the picture towards the viewer.

this probably limited her potential as a consequence. Her involvement with the DMSA ended in 1905, at which point she

was no longer a full-time student. She overlapped with William

Orpen's teaching by a mere three years, and surprisingly, at a

point when she was studying lace work.'3 Though it is probable

she attended the RHA Schools, figure-drawing is her weakness.'4 There is sometimes, too, a certain theatricality of composition, when her canvas appears to be a tableau upon which the scene

is to unfold. In Fair Day in Miss O'Dowd's (Fig 1 1)," we are brought into

commerce with the West of Ireland, the shop, the hub of the

community, supplying everything from salt to sides of bacon to

Cidona. The hustle and bustle of the shoppers appears staged,

the shop peopled with likely characters. Given Lilian Davidson's involvement with the theatre, that her two interests should here converge is no surprise, but one cannot help feeling that a 'play

boy of the westem world' may upset the applecart at any minute.

Low Tide, Wicklow (Fig 9), exhibited at the RHA in 1934, was

painted at 'the Old Bridge' in Wicklow.'6 Lilian frequently painted on the quays in Wicklow and Arklow, staying at Major

Grimshaw's house, Friars Hill, where he kept paying guests.'" In

this painting she again reinforces the dignity of labour with the

mass of buildings and bridge. With large blocks of colour, she conveys the bulk of the buttressing and weightiness of the

masonry, while the structure of the composition depends upon her fine draughtsmanship. The hardship of labour and the

37

IRISH ARTS REVIEW



6. Lilian DAVIDSON: Night in Claddagh. 1933. Oil on hardboard, 21.5 x 22.8 cm. Monogram bottom left. (Private collection). Influences of Jack B. Yeats, Paul and Grace Henry here converge, charged with Lilian Davidson's own intensity.

7. Lilian DAVIDSON: Nigh. Oil on canvas, 27.9 x 39.4. (Private collection). Several of Lilian Davidson's students alluded to a sense of mystery about her, a mystery she conveys in her 'night' paintings.

38

IRISH ARTS REVIEW



IN THE MAINSTREAM OF IRIStI NATURALISM THE ART OF LILIAN Lu(cy DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

8. Lilian DAVIDSON: Cottages, Keel, Achill. 1938. Oil on board. 25 x 34 cm. Monogram bottom left. (Private collection).The painting recalls a line from a Lilian Davidson poem, A Night: 'The sky itself like a purple cloak'.

hardness of stone are softened in the water's reflection. She had

a special ability in painting water, river, sea or canal. Perhaps

because she was born by the sea in Bray, Boats at Wicklow, Dusk

(Fig 14) is a tour-de-force of such painting.'8Wicklow town and bridge are again featured, this time as backdrop to the boats at

anchor, the rigging in mirror image in the still water of the har

bour, while her mastery of atmosphere is captured in the failing evening light. Claddagh Harbour (Fig 15) also demonstrates an affinity with water; the oily depths of the inshore waterway are

painted with total confidence. Lilian Davidson died in March 1954 and her obituary notice

in the Irish Times was followed some days later by a letter signed

'WML', expressing disappointment that, although Lilian's achievements in painting and teaching were lauded, there had

been no mention of her writing.'9 Lilian Davidson wrote plays, poems, short stories and monologues under the pseudonym Ulick Burke.20 Her play, Bride, was performed at the Gate

Theatre in 1931, directed by Hilton Edwards with costumes and set design by Michael McLiammoir. Judging from contemporary reviews, the plot seems to have foreshadowed John B Keane's better-known Sive.2'

'WML' was Winifred M Letts, wife of William H F

Verschoyle, whose portrait Lilian exhibited at the RHA in 1943. She, too, was writing plays and short stories at the same time. In

Knockmaroon, her book of Irish reminiscences, Winifred Letts relates the story of a visit to Slieve Gullion in the 'faithful

Austin' car with a travelling companion, and an encounter there

with a 'mountainy woman, Kate'. In 1916 Lilian Davidson

exhibited A Glimpse of Slieve Gullion at the Water Colour

Society; in 1920, Slieve Gullion from Fork Hill; in 1921 her

watercolour, A Mountainy Woman, was shown at the RHA and

Old Kate was shown in the 1924 annual exhibition. Perhaps it

was Lilian Davidson who had accompanied her champion,

Winifred Letts, on that earlier trip. In conversation with the

39

IRISH ARTS REVIEW



IN TI-IE MAINSTREAM OF IRISI-I NATURALISM THE ART OF LILIAN Lu(cy DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

9. Lilian DAVIDSON: Low Tide Wicklow. 1934. Oil on canvas, 73 x 92.1 cm. Signed in monogram lower left. (Ulster Museum) Lilian Davidson used to stay as a paying guest of Maior Grimshaw durinLe her tnainting holidays in Wicklow and Arklow.

Dublin visitors, Old Kate is accepting of her lot: 'Still, I'm not

offended with God who is good to me. Being Protestants, ye may

not go along with those things mebbe.' This comment, which marks an essential class and religious difference between them, makes us return to the original proposition: Lilian Davidson's empathy with her subject. As 'genteel poor', she identified with the struggle and hard work of peasants, but she was not one of

them. Her identification, however, goes so far as to insert a por

trait of herself into her painting of The Country Races (Fig 5).22

In this picture, essential pictorial elements of Lilian Davidson's work converge: a high horizon; a rough and rocky ground; a

great convivial gathering of country people for the races; the white horse23 and, central to the composition, the group of three peasant or travelling women forming their own, rather stiff, bul

wark against the world. The seated figure looking towards the

viewer is Lilian Davidson in self-portrait. It is highly imaginative,

but not unreasonable, to speculate that her two companions represent her sisters Annie and Mabel (Nan and Mab) in some

private allegory. Though students of Lilian Davidson speak of her modesty and

absence of egoism, there was in her a desire for recognition. She

bequeathed a large self-portrait (Fig 16)24 to the Municipal Gallery in Dublin (now the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern

Art), presumably to safeguard and personalise her reputation for future generations. Her friend Mainie Jellett did a portrait draw ing of her, resplendent in her famous straw hat (Fig 2).25

What sort of person emerges from these portraits? The 1918

painting shows her in working garb, strong and in command. In

the two self-portraits, she presents a diffident and almost wistful picture to the world, an interesting psychological insight between the outward impression of confidence, and an inner

uncertainty.

40

IRISH ARTS REV'IEW



10. Lilian DAVIDSON: The Flax Pullers, 1921. Oil on canvas, 66 x 76.2 cm. Signed with monogram lower left. (Brian P. Burns Collection). This happy and harmonious painting exhibited at the RHA annual exhibition in 1921 shows the influence of Lilian Davidson's travels to France.

11. Lilian DAVIDSON: Fair Day in Miss O'Dowd's. Oil on canvas, 71 x 91.5 cm. Inscribed lower left with monogram. (Pyms Gallery, London). This busy scene is believed to be in O'Dowd's shop in Roundstone, Co Galway.

41

IRISH ARTS REVIEW



IN THE MAINSTREAM OF IRISH NATURALISM THE ART OF LILIAN Lucy DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

12. Lilian DAvIDSON: The Harbour, St. Ives. 1916. Oil on canvas laid down on wood, 55.5 x 64.5 cm. Signed with monogram initials. (Gorry Gallery). The influence of the

Newlyn School, and in particular of Stanhope Forbes, seems to be present in this work.

The only clues we have to her personal life come through her

poetry and through the reminiscences of her students. In Donegal Rhymes (written under her pseudonym, Ulick Burke),26 a collection of poems published in 1927, this extract from The Lie, strongly suggests a spumed love:

Who was it said that men were kind ?

They lied, Cruel out an' out they are, body an' mind.

False through and changeful as the wind Or tide, Who was it said that men were kind ?

They lied. Is this poem autobiographical? Did Lilian Davidson carry a

bitter legacy of a lost love? She remained unmarried to the end

of her days. A former pupil remembered her mother saying that Lilian Davidson dyed her hair black, a risque thing to do in those days.27 The late Miss Jennifer Davidson recalled her eva siveness about her age.28 She was certified at death as being sixty-one, when in fact she was seventy-five. Several former stu dents have spoken of an air of mystery surrounding Miss Davidson.29

To her students she was hardly seen in the role of romantic heroine; she was, rather, their exacting but beloved teacher. She taught painting and drawing in several schools in Dublin and

went as far afield as Abbeyleix, county Laois by train, one day

each week.' But it was her classes held at her studio and flat at

Number One, Earlsfort Terrace that most impressed her young protegees. She was referred to as 'the Dave' by her students.

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13. Lilian DAVIDSON: Cineraria. Oil on panel, 30.6 x 48.2 cm. Signed with monogram lower left. (Collection the Investment Bank of Ireland). 'Never paint with a starved brush,' was one of Lilian Davidson's exhortations to

her students.

- -~~~~~~~~~~~~~i

-~ ~~~~~~~ /

14. Lilian DAVIDSON: Boats at Wicklow, Dusk. Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 71.1 cm. Signed with monogram lower left. (Private collection). Perhaps because she was born by the coast in Bray, Lilian Davidson had a special ability in painting water - river,

sea, or canal.

-~~~~~~~~~~

15. Lilian DAVIDSON: Claddagh Harbour. Oil on canvas. 61 x 76.1 cm. (AIB Collection). Oily water, boats, men at work, warehouses and mills often form the vernacular pictorial language

of Lilian Davidson.

16. Lilian DAVIDSON: The Gold Shawl or Self-Portrait. Oil on canvas 91 x 71 cm. (Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modem

Art). First exhibited at the RHA in 1918 when Lilian Davidson would have been thirty-nine.

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IN TIIE MAINSTREAM OF IRISI-I NAT'URAILISM THE ART OF LILIAN Lu(CY DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

Romily Larken, one of their number, recalls instruction under Miss Davidson at her Saturday moming classes.3' There

she met older students, Bea Orpen, Pat

Wallace (Griffith), Kitty Wilmer O'Brien and Lillias Mitchell. She describes Miss Davidson's drawing room as 'long and spacious, made warm by the

glow of her lovely oil paintings which covered the walls, a glow enhanced by

the colourful throw rugs on the furni

ture and the odd, glistening copper jug.'32 Betty Sullivan remembered that

Miss Davidson seemed impervious to the cold as she went from student to

student absorbed in everybody's work. She also remembered that conversation flowed, that she would be interested in

the current production at the Gate

Theatre and her friends Edwards, McLiammoir and other members of the company. A large cat of character, who

used to visit, was an obviously adored

member of the household. Lillias Mitchell recalled the shadowy figure of

one of Lilian's sisters in the hall with a

tray of tea and bread and butter. Lilian

Davidson prepared her students for the

Royal Drawing Society (London) annual examinations, the Taylor Scholarship at the RDS annual show in Dublin, and the

Royal Drawing Society's Teacher/Artist Diploma examinations with great success." She took extraordinary pains for her stu

dents, often finding older and more responsible companions to cycle with the younger pupils to class on a Saturday morning, or

securing digs in London for those taking the Diploma in the

RDS Teaching examinations.34 The picture that emerges is of an indefatigable and generous

woman, working on several levels, as artist, teacher, and writer.

That she achieved success is reflected in, among other achieve ments, a lifetime of exhibited works, which includes more than forty years exhibiting at the RHA and the Water Colour

Society. She also showed at The Dublin Painters' exhibitions

and the Oireachtas and Aonach Tailteann exhibitions. Her

work was shown abroad in London, Amsterdam, Chicago and,

in 1924 and 1930, at the Salon de la Societe Nationale in Paris.3"

She was also active behind the scenes; in 1934 she became a

committee member of the Water Colour

Society and in 1940 was made Associate

of the RHA

During the 1930s she was among the

founders of the Torch Theatre

Company in Capel Street, Dublin,36 designing sets and programmes, and no doubt making literary contributions as well. She designed posters of the Ireland of the Welcomes variety and did book

illustrations. In the breadth of her endeavour and in her necessity to make

her own way in the world without bene

factor or bursary, she has more in com

mon with her sister artists of the late

20th century than she had with many of

her contemporaries. Did she look with horror or envy at

the experiments with Cubism being brought into the country by her fellow Irish women artists? We shall never know. She remained firmly in the main

stream of Irish naturalism, using Irish landscape, seascape and genre scenes as her raw material, material she used with

remarkable facility. If the Irish cottage by the lakeside, overlooked by moun tains, became an overworked image in

the hands of Paul Henry, she brought more to it. In Henry's

work, we have the detached, reverent observance of the heroic peasant; in Lilian Davidson's depiction of the same subject mat

ter, however, there is engagement. Lilian Davidson is buried along with her sisters Nan and Mab

and their Aunt Sarah in an unmarked grave in Mount Jerome

Cemetery in Dublin. A pauper's grave an' my old coat

Happed round me for a shroud,

Is all I hope to get. Lord love you, sir.37

KATHERINE CAHILL is a graduate of the History of Art Department, University College, Dublin, and works as a researcher with RTE television.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks to James and Therese Gorry of The Gony Gallery, for intro ducing me to the works of Lilian Lucy Davidson, and for their consistent help since then. Also to Miss Lillias Mitchell, who collected testimonials from fellow former students which gave valuable insights into Lilian Davidson. My thanks, too, to my husband, Frank Corr, for his whole-hearted support of the project.

17. Lilian DAVIDSON: Seagulls. Watercolour on paper, 35.5 x 47 cm. Signed with monogram lower left.

(Private collection). Lilian Davidson as a teacher did not like synthetic whites and encouraged her pupils to

achieve brightness either through leaving the paper blank or through very thin washes. She exhibited at the

Water Colour Society for forty years.

1. Jennifer Davidson, in conversation with the

author, 1988.

2. Clerk of Petty Sessions; later promoted to

Sub-sheriff of Wicklow 1895-97.

3. Lawes' Chemical Manure Co. (Ltd.) manufac turers of chemical manures and dealers in oil

cake, 22 Eden Quay, Dublin and 59 Mark

Lane, London.

4. Biographical details sent to the Belfast

Municipal Museum and Art Gallery by Lilian

Davidson relating to their acquisition of Low

Tide, Wicklow donated by the Haverty Trust

in 1936.

5. Ms Romily Larken, a former student of Lilian

Davidson, in correspondence in 1988

recounted 'when the Private Life of Henry Vlll, a film of great stature in my day, was shown

and I told her a distant cousin of mine, Philip

Lindsay, had been responsible for the histori

cal research, she told me in no uncertain

terms that the historical research had been

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IN TrlE MAINSTr1IEAM OF IRIXII NATURALISM THE ART (F LILIAN LU(Y DAVIDSON, 1879-1954

most inaccurate! So apart from being well

educated and well informed, she must have

been something of a perfectionist.' 6. Information regarding the Bray Industrial

Exhibition came from Mr Colbert Martin, Old

Bray Society. 7. A fashionable Dublin department store in

Grafton Street, now subsumed into Brown

Thomas.

8. The subject of this painting, exhibited at the

Gorry Gallery 16-29 Oct 1987, has been iden

tified topographically as the harbour at St Ives

in Cornwall. Given the location and the

broadening of style, the author belives it possi ble that this is a work influenced by Stanhope Forbes and that this may be the painting enti

tled The Wharf, which was exhibited at the

RHA in 1916. 9. L Birch, Stanhope Forbes and Elizabeth S Forbes

(London 1906), p. 88.

10. Ms Romily Larken, in her unpublished essay of reminiscences about Lilian Davidson as a

teacher, writes: 'I sensed a close and happy

atmosphere amongst the sisters. It was also

said that Lilian was the bread winner for the

three of them.' Miss Elizabeth Ferrar, a former

pupil, in conversation with the author, recalled her mother commissioning two

watercolours from Lilian Davidson of their

home in Killiney and saying something to the

effect of 'that poor thing, she needs the work.'

Miss Lillias Mitchell, also a former pupil, in

conversation with the author remembered

Lilian Davidson living with her two frail,

dependent sisters. Revd Stanley Pettigrew in

correspondence wrote: 'and when Miss

Davidson was financially at a low ebb, she (a Miss Kent) bought one of her pictures of a

western fair.'

11. NGI cat. no 1289; part of Lilian Davidson's

bequest to the National Gallery of Ireland in

1955, which also included a drawing of Sarah

Purser (NGI cat. no 3281). 12. RHA exhibits in 1922 included: Rue Ecart?e,

Bruxelles (w/c,no. 172); Marchande des

Poissons, Bruges (w/c, no 237) In 1923: The

Old Market, Rouen ( no 2); A Street in Rouen

(w/c, no 268); A Belgian Battlefield (w/c, no

288); The Cloth Hau, Ypres 1921 (w/c, no

291). In 1925: Market Day, Montreux (no

141); Rifelalp (no 186). In 1929:Washing Pool, Caudebec (no 259); Old House, Caudebec (no

260). In the years 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925 and

1929 similar titles were exhibited at the Water

Colour Society. 13. In 1904, at the Annual Distribution of Prizes

at the DMSA, Lilian received Third Prize

under Section 8 of the Prize Scheme for Lace.

In 1905, she received a prize in 'Perspective 2'.

14. A review by 'GHG' in the Irish Times of an

exhibition at the Dublin Painters' Gallery says 'her figure drawing, on the whole, is her weak est point

? not that her figure compositions are not well painted, but they give the impres sion, somehow, of being book illustrations

rather than paintings.' 15. Mrs Mary Hobart of Pyms Gallery, London,

suggests that this is a painting of O' Dowd's

shop in Roundstone, Co Galway. 16. Mr E V Hickey, former Keeper of Art, Ulster

Museum, writes in correspondence with the

author in 1988: 'I've a personal interest in this

painting as it (the bridge) is located about a

hundred yards from the house I was brought up in, in Leitrim Place, Wicklow Town. It is

known as 'the Old Bridge' in Wicklow. The

building in the background is The Bridge Inn.

I probably saw her painting on the quays in

Wicklow as a child as she painted a lot there.'

17. In correspondence with the Revd Stanley

Pettigrew, Wicklow, 28 July 1988.

18. Boats at Wicklow, Dusk was sold at James Adam Salerooms, Dublin in Oct 1993 for

?10,000, described at the time as a landmark

price for a Lilian Davidson work. This figure was superseded in Sotheby's Irish Art Sale,

May 1998 when Gathering Kelp fetched

?20,700. 19. Irish Times (3 Apr 1954): 'Sir, In the recent

obituary notice of Lilian Davidson ARHA, whose loss seems irreparable to so many, there was no mention of her gifts in literature. As

well as being a keen critic of drama, she had

written plays. Her play 'Bride' was produced in

Dublin many years ago and was accepted by a

London theatre. She wrote as Ulick Burke. 1

do not know her poems - to me poetry was

implicit in her pictures - but she was a poet on

paper as well as on canvas.'

20. Publications by Lilian Davidson writing as

Ulick Burke include: Donegal Rhymes (a col

lection of poetry) published by Claude Stacey Ltd (London 1927); 'Aunt Susan's Troubles on the Farm', in The National Union Catalogue

(Chicago 1916), vol 134, p. 301; 'Boys' Essays on Boys' (monologue for a man and a woman) The Chicago Dramatic Publishing Company

(Chicago 1916); 'Her Doubtful Patriotism'

(Franklin 1918); *De Scrumscious Weddin'

(Negro dialect monologue for a woman), The

Chicago Dramatic Publishing Company, 'Her

Only Son' (short story) in The Bell (Dublin Oct 1942), vol 5, no 1.

21. Review of Bride in the Irish Times (13 Jany 1931): 'On the back of the programme sold in

the Gate Theatre last night the first line states

'Saturday 24th - last performance of Bride.' It

will be falsified. Bride, Ulick Burke's play of

Western Ireland, will be played on many a

night after the 24th. It is only the story of a

Dublin servant girl and of the meanness of

men, but is brought to tragic denouement

amongst Western peasantry with a sure hand.

The play was able to hold its audience

throughout, and the author well deserved the

urgent calls at the close.'

22. Written in pencil in Lilian Davidson's hand

writing is the title Le Feu on the stretcher of

this painting. It was possibly an exhibit for the

Salon de la Soci?t? Nationale in Paris.

23. Beryl Whitworth, a friend of Lilian Davidson, in correspondence with the author, 1988,

writes: 'I would very much like to have had one of her paintings of the West & Horse

Fairs (usually with a white horse and foal).' 24- Part of her bequest to the Municipal Gallery,

now the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of

Modern Art. This picture was exhibited twice

at the RHA: in 1918 as Portrait of the Artist

and in 1933 as The Gold Shawl.

25. Esm? Cox, in correspondence with the author

in June 1988, writes: 'she was tall'and slim,

slightly fluid, with black hair. She always wore

loose graceful clothes, and in all weathers (or

so it seems!), a straw hat embroidered with

raffia flowers'. WAN Figgis writes in June 1988: 'Her classes were, I'm afraid, golden

opportunities for boyish pranks, particularly the painting of the straw hat which memory

suggests she wore at all seasons.'

26. (As note 20.) 27. In conversation with Miss Elizabeth Ferrar (as

note 10). 28. In conversation with Miss Jennifer Davidson

(as note 1). 29. Miss Valerie Bond, while knowing nothing of

Lilian's background, felt she did emanate a

slight sense of mystery. Miss Elizabeth Ferrar

also concurs that there was a certain sense of

mystery about Lilian Davidson.

30. Among the schools in which she taught were, in Dublin, the Knockrabo PNEU (Parents

National Education Union), Dundrum -

information from Miss Valerie Bond; Wesley

College, St Stephen's Green; information from

A Elizabeth Haslam; Belgrave School - infor

mation from Esm? Cox and Lillias Mitchell; Castle Park School, Dalkey

- information

from WAN Figgis. In Abbeyleix, she taught in Glen Ban PNEU Boarding School - infor

mation from Mrs Maud Bass.

31. Romily Larken (as note 10). 32. From notes made by former pupil Betty

Sullivan LRIAM and given to Lillias Mitchell

who kindly passed them on to the author.

33. Betty Sullivan(as note 32) claims, 'Due to

Lilian Davidson's tuition I managed to gain a

First Prize in the Taylor Art Competition at

the RDS.' Romily Larken (as note 10) writes, 'Not content with entering us annually in the

RDS (London) examination, there was

another RDS annual competition and exhibi

tion. We had always been advised to keep one year's work safely, and each year Miss

Davidson chose the best of the six paintings mounted to an art board, and, perhaps, sev

eral art boards, to a pupil. She performed the

arduous task and delivered them herself to

the RDS...She told me she wanted me to

study for and sit the London RDS Teacher

Diploma examination and she set about train

ing me for this.' Valerie Bond writes in May 1988: 'she encouraged an interest in painting

which led to my studying at the Slade School at a later stage.'

34. Romily Larken (as note 10): 'Miss Davidson must have undertaken complete charge of all

the negotiations involved with the London

Royal Drawing School authorities, because I

didn't and I'm sure that my parents did not

either. I do remember that she recommended to my parents the charming studio-type bed

sitter where I was to reside for the term of my examinations.'

35. E Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire

des Peintres, Sculpteurs Dessinateurs et

Graveurs, nouvelle edition (Paris 1976). 36. Jennifer Davidson (as note 1). 37. Extract from Contentment in Donegal Rhymes.

by Ulick Burke (1927).

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In the Mainstream of Irish Naturalism: The Art of Lilian Lucy Davidson, 1879-1954

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