Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1893-1954) Going to the Fair Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 36.8cm (17½ x 14½'') Signed with monogram Lillan Davidson was born in Bray Co. Wicklow and attended the Dublin...

Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1893-1954) Going to the Fair Oil on canvas, 44.5 x 36.8cm (17½ x 14½'') Signed with monogram Lillan Davidson was born in Bray Co. Wicklow and attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art Dublin from the age of sixteen and won prizes there in 1895, 1896, and in 1897 won the RDS Scholarship which carried a free studentship, it didn't come too soon as that was the year of her father's death. Although in not 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 the Watercolour 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 with 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 Micheál Mac Liammóir. She was certainly aware of the works of Honoré Daumier and Jean Francois Millet and used the same prototype of humanity for the important works depicting the Irish Peasant. Lilian 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, and it is thought that the Claddagh is the location of the current work.

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