FDA-D.1714-2023

Object number

FDA-D.1714-2023

Object type

drawing

Title

Eton College, Lupton's Tower

Title Type

Common name

Description

Painted view of buildings, including a clock tower; figures in the foreground; portrait orientation

Comments

Emily Susannah Eleanor (Nora) Davison, the daughter of a clergyman, was born in Worcestershire. In 1884 she began exhibiting watercolours of marine subjects at the Society of Women Artists in Great Marlborough Street, London. A solo exhibition of her work was held in Birmingham in 1901. Davison later moved from London to Ilchester, Somerset, to live with her brother, the headmaster of a local school. He was an Old Etonian and it may have been this link that encouraged Davison to relocate to Eton following her brother’s death in 1913. Davison became a well-known figure at Eton College and would be remembered ‘sitting on her camp-stool, often with a cluster of boys looking on as she painted some Eton building. Cold, wind and rain could not keep her indoors...’. She remained at Eton until 1934, when she moved to Worcester but continued to return to the College each year to paint. Richard Amis may well have been one of the boys ‘looking on’ as she worked.
Along the edge of this drawing, beneath the mount, Davison has made notes in pencil. One appears to read: 'figures stand out very distinctly coming along'. It may be that the two boys in the foreground were requested by the person who commissioned the drawing and represent specific pupils at the College.

Content (place)

Eton College

Dimensions

height (actual size): 272mm
width (actual size): 220mm

Material

paper
watercolour
pencil

Materials & techniques note

Watercolour on paper

Person

Davison, Nora, 1855 - 1950 (Artist)

Object history note

Provenance: Collection of Richard Henry Allen Amis (K.S. 1945-50; 1932-2018); by whom bequeathed to Eton College

Exhibited: 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024