Attributed to Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1879-1954) Stree...

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Hammer

€4,600

Attributed to Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1879-1954)

Street Scene on Achill Island, oil on canvas c. 1930, unframed, 25” x 30” (64cms x 76cms). (1)

In this characteristic West of Ireland scene, traffic in the village consists of donkeys loaded with creels of turf, cattle, and a woman dressed in traditional black shawl. In the background, the dark shape of a mountain rises above the mainly single-storey cottages. On the basis of subject matter, style and handling of paint, this work can be attributed to Lilian Lucy Davidson, and dated to around 1930.

Born in Bray, Co. Wicklow in 1879, aged sixteen Lilian Lucy Davidson enrolled as a student at the Metropolitan School of Art. She began to win prizes immediately, and in 1897 was awarded an RDS Scholarship, enabling her to study and travel on the Continent. She painted landscapes in Belgium and Switzerland, as well as in Ireland. In 1909 Davidson’s painting After Rain was shown at the Dublin Sketching Club, while The Harbour, St. Ives, exhibited at the RHA in 1916, indicates that she spent time in Cornwall. Four years later she had a joint exhibition with Mainie Jellett in Dublin. A long-time member of the Watercolour Society of Ireland, in 1922, Davidson showed seven paintings of Bruges at the Society’s annual exhibition. She was also a member of the Dublin Painters Gallery, a moderately progressive initiative founded in 1920 by Paul Henry and Mainie Jellett that exhibited the work of artists such as Davidson, Mary Swanzy, Stella Frost, Joan Jameson, Brigid Ganly and Beatrice Glenavy. Davidson was a versatile artist, and also worked in theatre, as a writer and director. Using the pen-name Ulick Burke, she wrote plays for the Gate Theatre, her most successful being Bride which was staged in 1931, the director being Hilton Edwards, with sets designed by Micheál MacLíammóir.

As a painter, she worked within a broadly Realist mode, and was influenced by French painters such as Honoré Daumier and Jean-Francois Millet. Like Millet, she specialised in rural scenes, and made regular painting trips to the Aran Islands, Achill Island and also to Co. Donegal. Her paintings of the Claddagh in Galway date from 1933, when she was writing a play for the Torch Theatre. In later years, Davidson gave art classes in Dublin, and among her pupils were Anne Yeats, Mo West (Irwin) and Bea Orpen.
Dr. Peter Murray 2021