Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1879-1954)
The Holy Well
Oil on canvas on board, 30 x 25cm (11¾ x 9¾'')
Signed with monogram; signed and inscribed on label verso

Provenance: From the...

Lilian Lucy Davidson ARHA (1879-1954)
The Holy Well
Oil on canvas on board, 30 x 25cm (11¾ x 9¾'')
Signed with monogram; signed and inscribed on label verso

Provenance: From the McClelland Collection and on loan to IMMA from 1999 - 2004.

Born in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Lillian Lucy Davidson attended the Metropolitan School of Art Dublin and won prizes in 1895, 1896 and in 1897. She won the RDS scholarship that carried a free studentship, which allowed her to travel extensively. Unlike her friend Mainie Jellett, and many of her contemporaries, Lillian Davidson could not, out of economic necessity spend long periods abroad, where she might have been more influenced by the Modernist Movement. During the 1920's and 30's she embarked on a peasant cycle of paintings travelling to Donegal, Galway, Achill, and Roundstone in Connemara. The early influence of Jack Yeats is very much evident in this group of paintings, but her uniqueness is in her distinct brushwork and depicting peasants in deep thought evoking an emotional response from the viewer. All over Ireland there are little shrines, which command a purely local loyalty. A Holy Well, a Mass Rock, the site of an early church, or some spot associated with a Saint who lived and worked in the locality. In the 'Holy Well', Davidson depicts an elderly barefoot peasant couple by a Holy Well. The scene of almost perfect tranquility and prayer is only disturbed by the gaze of the elderly peasant woman, reminiscent of the French artist Honor Daumier; powerfully direct, and also a pioneer of naturalism.

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