Mary Davis shared an exhibition at the Fine Art Society of 'Pictures, Portraits, Fans and Frivolities' with Laura Anning Bell and Constance Rea in 1919. Although it may seem a particularly trivial, feminine occupation, Maurice Denis and Paul Gauguin were among the modern artists who had designed fans in France, and, in Britain, Charles Conder. Davis knew Conder, and like him, she often painted on silk. In 1914, five years after his death, a joint exhibition of their work was held at the Colnaghi and Obach Gallery in New York.
Davis's husband made his fortune mining in South Africa. The couple settled in Britain, where they assembled an art collection including work by Canaletto, Rembrandt and Van Dyck. They also patronised contemporary artists, owning work by Whistler, and by Charles Ricketts and his partner Charles Shannon. Conder was commissioned to create silk panels for the Davises' London home in Holland Park.
Davis exhibited her work at the Grosvenor Gallery, the Leicester Galleries, the Ridley Art Club, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. She and her husband gave some of their collection of work by contemporary British artists to the Musee du Luxembourg. Paris (now housed in the Musee d'Orsay), feeling that British art was underrepresented in France, and they also made donations to the South African National Gallery. |
