Mary Davis

Mary Davis, Lady Davis (née Halford; 22 March 1866 – 30 October 1941) was a British artist known as a designer and painter of fans.

Biography Davis was born in London and studied art at the Ridley Art School. She exhibited landscape paintings and painted fans at the Royal Academy in London from 1886 onwards and at the Paris Salon from 1898. In 1919, Davis shared an exhibition, entitled Pictures, Portraits, Fans and Frivolities, with Laura Anning Bell and Constance Rea at the Fine Art Society in London.

In 1889, she had married Edmund Davis, who was knighted in 1927. Five old-master paintings were stolen from their collection in 1938.

The couple also commissioned artists, including Charles Conder, to decorate their Holland Park home and also Chilham Castle, which they owned until after Edmund's death in 1939. In due course, the Davises donated works from their art collection to the Iziko South African National Gallery and to the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. They also donated some items to the Tate collection.