211:. In 1910, she went back to Paris and set up a workshop in Monparnasse on Boissonade Street next door to Raymond Legueult and across the street from the Dutch painter Conrad Kickert. She became the godmother of Kickert's daughter as well as of Philippe Besnard's daughter. She made many other friends in Parisian art circles, including the painter
257:, and some sources say that she was a member of the French Resistance. Her paintings from this period are strong, bright, and lively. In 1945, she returned to her old studio in Paris, occasionally spending time at a farm she bought near Rouen. In the postwar period, she painted mostly outdoors on small wood panels.
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with a palette knife. In this period her work sold well and was well received by critics. She travelled around Europe, Russia, and
Morocco making outdoor sketches that she used as the basis for paintings later produced in her studio. Her landscapes are notable for their quality of light and sense of atmosphere.
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Bessie Ellen
Davidson was born on 22 May 1879 in North Adelaide, South Australia, to a family of Scottish and English origin. She was the second child of David Davidson, who was in the mining industry, and Ellen Johnson Davidson. Her great-grandfather William Gowan was a sculptor, and her grandmother
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The postwar period between 1918 and 1920 saw
Davidson producing quiet, intimate, loosely impressionistic paintings—mostly interiors, still lives, and portraits—in muted tones. Her style evolved in a more vigorous direction in the 1920s and 1930s, with rich, vibrant, often dramatic colours laid on
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In 1904, after her mother's death, she went to Europe to study art in company with
Preston. They spent the first few months in Munich, where Davidson studied briefly at the Künstlerinner Verein, before moving on to Paris. There she studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, under René-Xavier
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Davidson travelled to
Australia to visit family in 1914 and was there when World War I began. She returned to France immediately, where she joined the French Red Cross and served in various military hospitals. During the war, she met the woman who would be her companion for the next two decades,
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Downey, Georgina. "Reading Rooms: Domesticity, Identity and
Belonging in the Paintings of Bessie Davidson, Margaret Preston and Stella Bowen in Paris and London 1910s–1930s". Ph.D. thesis, South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia,
191:. In 1922 she would become the first Australian woman elected a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and she would later serve as its secretary. She was a founding member of the
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In 1930 Davidson was a founding vice-president of La Société Femmes
Artistes Modernes. She was a founding member of the Société Nationale Indépendentes and a member of the
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171:). She began exhibiting with the South Australian Society of Arts as early as 1901; in this period, her work clearly showed Preston's influence.
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Returning to
Australia in 1907, Davidson rented a studio with Preston and continued painting and exhibiting for several years. In 1908, the
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Prinet, where she met and began a lifelong friendship with
Philippe Besnard's future wife, Germaine Desgranges. She also took classes with
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Although still a citizen of the
British Commonwealth, Davidson decided to stay in France during World War II. She lived with friends in
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154:(1879–1965) was an Australian painter known for her impressionist, light-filled landscapes and interiors.
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Little, Penelope. "The Beauty of Common Things: The Rediscovery of Bessie Davidson."
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To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity
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A Studio in Montparnasse: Bessie Davidson: an Australian Artist in Paris
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Drayton, Joanne. "Edith Collier: Her life and work (1885–1964)." (1998).
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Marguerite Leroy (d. 1938), whose nickname was "Dauphine".
401:, Art Gallery Board of South Australia, Adelaide, 1994
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Frances Gowan was a painter. She was educated at the
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455:Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
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369:Little, Penelope, and Bessie Davidson.
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352:, Sotheby, 24 November 2008. (Catalog)
465:20th-century Australian women artists
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187:, and the year after that at the
450:Australian expatriates in France
430:20th-century Australian painters
189:Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts
139:Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts
385:Some Forgotten, Some Remembered
107:Académie de la Grande Chaumière
399:South Australian Women Artists
392:The Prints of Margaret Preston
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470:19th-century Australian women
297:"Bessie Davidson (1879–1965)"
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185:Société des Artistes Français
16:Australian artist (1879–1965)
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485:20th-century women painters
266:Saint-Saëns, Seine-Maritime
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350:Important Australian Art
158:Early life and education
232:French Legion of Honor
179:, Richard Miller, and
435:Artists from Adelaide
152:Bessie Ellen Davidson
44:Bessie Ellen Davidson
315:Woollacott, Angela.
104:Künstlerinner Verein
480:Burials in Normandy
193:Salon des Tuileries
240:Tamara de Lempicka
378:Art and Australia
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68:(1965-02-22)
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420:1965 deaths
415:1879 births
390:Butler, R.
380:36:4, 1999.
93:Nationality
57:, Australia
47:22 May 1879
409:Categories
383:Biven, R.
272:References
96:Australian
101:Education
255:Grenoble
121:Movement
116:Painting
88:, France
51:Adelaide
135:Elected
246:, and
199:Career
141:(1922)
366:2004.
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