WHYTE'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART Monday 11 March 2024 at 6pm

44 22 Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1893-1954) BRINGING HOME THE TURF oil on canvas signed with monogram lower left; also inscribed [AA 239] on reverse 22.50 by 29in. (57.2 by 73.7cm) Frame Size: 29.5 by 35.5in. (74.9 by 90.2cm) Provenance: Purchased from an exhibition (date unknown) of Davidson’s work by the present owner’s parents; Thence by descent Lilian Davidson came from humble beginnings in Bray, Co. Wicklow where she was educated privately before attending the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. She was closely associated with the Watercolour Society of Ireland with whom she exhibited from 1912 until 1953 and with the RHA which exhibited 135 works by the artist over a forty year period from 1914. From an address in Rathmines Dublin, Davidson exhibited widely with the Dublin Painters’ exhibitions, the Oireachtas and in 1920 in a joint show with Mainie Jellett. She is also recorded as exhibiting abroad in the 1930s in London, Amsterdam, Chicago and at the Salon de la Société Nationale in Paris (1924 and 1930). A solo show in Dublin was held in 1936 which comprised 36 works in oil and watercolour, among them a portrait of George Russell (Æ). In 1940 she was made an Associate to the RHA. Davidson set up a studio and taught in Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin where she counted among her protégés; Bea Orpen, Kitty Wilmer O’Brien and Lillias Mitchell. She was closely associated with theatre in Dublin and she counted among her friends Hilton Edwards and Mícheál MacLíammóir. She designed sets, wrote plays and painted scenery for the Torch Theatre which she helped found in the 1930s. The present work depicting rural life in Ireland is comparable with the artist’s deeply empathetic works from the 1930s such as Cottages, Keel, Achill, 1938 (Private collection) shown at the RHA that year. The composition has a theatrical feel with its dynamic figures in the foreground and steep mountain range in the distance. The palette of mauve and earthy brown tones evoke the West in a deeply personal manner that is romantic and at the same time sympathetic. The influence of Jack B. Yeats can be seen in her choice of subject and although more sombre in palette , her use of mass and space are strongly influenced by him. 1 Their relationship is recorded in canvas in her portrait of Yeats from 1938 which she bequeathed to the National Gallery in 1955 [NGI.1289]. Although Davidson would have been exposed to more avant-garde trends during her lifetime her approach remained faithful to Naturalism and the influence of French Impressionism which she was exposed to while in France in the 1920s. In 2003 the National Gallery of Ireland acquired Fashions at the Fair, c.1940s [NGI.4719] underpinning her importance in the context of Irish art. Footnotes: 1. Cahill, Katherine, ‘In the Mainstream of Irish Naturalism, The Art of Lilian Lucy Davidson, 1879-1954’, Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Vol. 15, 1999, p.36 2. Ibid., p.44 €20,000-€30,000 (£17,090-£25,640 approx.) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot22