John Scarlett Davis | |
|---|---|
 Self portrait,c. 1841 | |
| Born | (1804-09-01)1 September 1804 3, High Street,Leominster,England |
| Died | 29 September 1845(1845-09-29) (aged 41) 11, Bedford Street,Bedford Square,London, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | painter |
| Known for | Landscape, portrait and architectural paintings |
John Scarlett Davis (1 September 1804 – 29 September 1845), orDavies, was an Englishlandscape,portrait andarchitectural painter, andlithographer.[1]
Davis was born inLeominster (the building, 2 High Street, survives[1]), the second of five children of James Davis, a silversmith and watchmaker.[2] Scarlett was his mother's maiden name; she was a distant relation ofJames Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger.[2] At the age of eleven, Davis won an award from the local society for the encouragement of the arts. He studied at theRoyal Academy Schools in London, and began exhibiting his works at the annual Royal Academy shows in 1825 (with the painting "My Den"). He last exhibited in London in 1844. He was influenced by the work of his contemporary,Richard Parkes Bonington.
Davis painted portraits, landscapes, and church interiors, and developed a distinctive speciality in painting the interiors of art galleries. His pictureThe Interior of the British Institution Gallery (1829) records a collection of Old Masters. Helithographed and published twelve heads from studies byRubens, and in 1832 some views ofBolton Abbey, drawn from nature on stone. His watercolor of the collection of Benjamin Godfrey Windus (1835) shows theTurner pictures on the walls. (John Ruskin studied those Turners while writing hisModern Painters.)[3] Davis painted the interiors of theLouvre as well. Between 1842 and 1845 he was commissioned to draw copies of the paintings in the collections of the British royal palaces.
Davis painted scenes on the Continent during his travels there. In 1831 he had a commission fromLord Farnborough to paint an interior of theVatican and of theEscorial. He was inFlorence in 1834, where he painted the interior of theUffizi Gallery, and inAmsterdam in 1841 (sending the picture "Jack after a successful cruise, visiting his old comrades at Greenwich").
He died ofpulmonary tuberculosis on 29 September 1845, at his London home, 11, Bedford Street, inBedford Square[1] and was buried at All Souls,Kensal Green.[2] He was 41 years old.
He is commemorated by ablue plaque, erected in September 2002, on his birthplace in Leominster.[1] His works are in a number of public and private collections, with several in each of theNational Museum Cardiff,[2] theNational Portrait Gallery,[4]Tate Britain,[5]Hereford Museum and Art Gallery,[1]Leominster Museum,[1] theMetropolitan Museum of Art,[6] and theYale Center for British Art. A major exhibition of his work was held at Hereford in 1937.[1] A number of his letters are held by Herefordshire Libraries and Information Service.[1]
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