Nancy May Kilgour b. May 1908

Also known as Nancy May Davidson, née Davidson Nancy May Kilgour
  • Artist (Painter)
Despite being a talented painter in her own right, for many years Nancy Kilgour was best known as the wife of fellow painter Jack Kilgour, with whom she exhibited a number of times at Macquarie Galleries in Sydney.
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painter and writer, was born Nancy May Davidson in Melbourne in May 1908. In about 1917 the family moved to Sydney where Nancy worked as a secretary while attending evening classes at Julian Ashton 's Sydney Art School. In 1933 her painting, Devon Farmyard , was exhibited in the Sydney Art School retrospective, by which time she was in London. She had married a fellow student, Jack (J.N.) Kilgour , in 1931 and the couple travelled to England. They became close to fellow artist William Dobell there; Nancy’s diaries are an important source of information on Dobell’s London years. Nancy studied at St Martin-in-the-Field School. From about 1935, however, she concentrated more on her writing. In 1936 she suffered a near fatal attack of eclampsia from which she never fully recovered.

In 1939 the Kilgours returned to Australia and Nancy began painting again, while continuing to write short stories and a novel (never published). Jack had painted her portrait in 1932 and soon after she resumed painting she produced Portrait of Jack Kilgour Sketching a Model (both Mitchell Library). She exhibited at Sydney’s Macquarie Galleries in 1941, held joint exhibitions with her husband there in 1943, 1946 and 1950 – as well as in Adelaide and Brisbane – and was a regular exhibitor with the NSW Society of Artists. In the Garden , exhibited in 1943, features the large posterior of a female gardener with a wit and simplicity comparable to Anne Graham 's work. In 1954, the year of her death, Nancy briefly worked as a secretary at East Sydney Technical College.

Until 1994 (when she appeared in her husband’s entry), Nancy Kilgour was mentioned in none of the standard references on Australian art. If it were not for Jack, who encouraged the Newcastle Region Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of NSW and private dealers to see her work and gave transcripts of some of her diary notes to the Newcastle Region Art Gallery, she would have faded into complete obscurity.

Writers:
Mendelssohn, Joanna
Date written:
1995
Last updated:
2011

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