94
76. *Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1879-1954)
Night at Claddagh (circa 1933)
Oil on hard board, 21.5 x 22.8 cm
Signed with monogram.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist AnneYeats, who had taken art lessons
with Davidson
Exhibited: RHA Dublin, 1933 Cat. No 33;
Irish Women Artists Exhibition
, National Gallery of Ireland, 1983, Cat. No 94
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Lilian Davison was born in Bray Co.Wicklow and attended the Metropolitan School of Art Dublin
from the age of sixteen and won prizes there in 1895, 1896 and in 1897 won the RDS Scholar-
ship which carried a free studentship, it didn’t come too soon as that was the year of her father’s
death.
Although not in very buoyant financial circumstances she travelled extensively and did so for
most of her life. She painted landscapes in Belgium and Switzerland, besides various parts of
Ireland. She was a regular contributor to theWatercolour Society,The Dublin Painters Society
and the Munster Fine Art Club, and was part of an interesting circle being friendly with Jack
Yeats whom she painted and the circle around the Gate theatre for which she wrote plays under
the pseudonym of Ulick Burke, her most famous play Bride was directed in the Gate by Hilton
Edwards and designed by Michael McLiammoir.
She was certainly aware of the works of Honore Daumier and Jean Francois Millet and used the
same proto type of humanity for important works depicting the Irish Peasant.
Lillian Davidson portrayed the Claddagh, the Irish-speaking district of Galway, at a time when she
was involved with the Torch Theatre for whom she was writing a play.
