Design and Art Australia Online

painter, professional photographer and house painter, showed three paintings with the Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Australia at Sydney in 1847: Scene from Byron’s Giaour, after H. Vernet , The Grecian Sisters (both for sale) and Portrait of a Gentleman . The last was described by the Sydney Morning Herald of 26 July 1847 as 'a fair likeness but a poor painting. The subjects of the other two, we fear, are rather beyond the artist’s abilities. Many young artists retard their progress by attempting too much … Portrait painting seems to be his forte, though he has much to learn in it still’.

At the exhibition, the artist was listed in the catalogue as W. Davis of Pyrmont. At the society’s next exhibition, in June 1849, 'J. Davies’, also from Pyrmont, showed four works (medium unspecified). From the tone of the Sydney Morning Herald review it may well have been the same artist (or close relative): Portrait of Sir D. Wilkie was judged a 'vile caricature, which would form a blot upon the walls of any exhibition’, while Man Overboard 'should have been immediately consigned to the flames’. Another work, Favourite , was a copy after a painting in the exhibition by the British artist D. Macnee, then owned by Mr Mackay of Parramatta. It received slightly more encouragement, being described as a 'very bold attempt in so young an artist, but affording evidence of talent and promise of success if his studies are pursued in the right direction’.

In January 1860 W. Davis announced that he had just opened a new photography gallery at 328 George Street, 'between Hunter Street and the Post Office, Prices Moderate’. It did not survive. Later in the year W. Davis advertised that he had taken over the (house) painting business of H. Bancroft and 'begs to state that the strictest attention to punctuality and dispatch will be paid in the execution of all orders and that the business will be carried on as heretofore, in York Street, next to the Lyceum Theatre’. Although the name is a common one, it seems likely that house painting was Davis’s normal trade. Nevertheless, the following year W. Davis made a comparatively triumphant return appearance as a fine art painter, showing an oil painting of Aborigines in the bush at the exhibition held in Sydney in preparation for the 1862 London International Exhibition. This view of 'colonial scenery’ was sent on to London – one of the few paintings to be so honoured.

Writers:

Kerr, Joan

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011