Bessie (1879) Davidson Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Bessie (1879) Davidson Art Value Price Guide

Sep. 15, 2026
Bessie Davidson, Snow scene, Russia, c.1910 – 14
Est: $3,000 - $5,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) Snow scene, Russia, c.1910 – 14 gouache on cardboard 13.5 x 24.0 cm 22.5 x 33.0 cm (frame) PROVENANCE Collection of the artist, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery
Deutscher and Hackett
Sep. 15, 2026
Bessie Davidson, Coastal scene, France, c.1939
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) Coastal scene, France, c.1939 oil on cardboard 21.0 x 26.0 cm 32.5 x 37.5 cm (frame) bears inscription verso: Coastal Scene / France c.1939 PROVENANCE Collection of the artist, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide EXHIBITED Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart - Two artists and the Parisian avant-garde, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 20 March – 26 July 2020 LITERATURE Curtin, P. (ed.), Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, pp. 58 (illus.), 64 This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery
Deutscher and Hackett
Sep. 15, 2026
Bessie Davidson, The fortified house,
Est: $5,000 - $8,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) The fortified house oil on canvas on board 16.0 x 17.5 cm 28.0 x 29.5 cm (frame) bears inscription verso: Bessie Davidson PROVENANCE Collection of Conrad Kickert, France Beaussant Lefèvre, Paris, 10 October 2014, lot 68 (as ‘La maison fortifiée’) Private collection, Melbourne Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Adelaide, acquired from the above in 2017 This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery
Deutscher and Hackett
Aug. 25, 2026
BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Gabriel Migaud 1942 oil on board 92 x 73 cm frame: original, maker unknown, Paris
Est: $80,000 - $100,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Gabriel Migaud 1942 oil on board signed and dated ‘Bessie Davidson / 1942' lower right; signed, dated and inscribed 'Monsieur Gabriel Migaud / Avril 1942 à Grenoble / Bessie Davidson' verso 92 x 73 cm frame: original, maker unknown, Paris PROVENANCE Bessie Davidson, Paris Gabriel Migaud, Grenoble, acquired from the above in April 1942 Private Collection, France, by descent from the above EXHIBITED Bessie Davidson: An Australian in France: 1880-1965, Australian Embassy, Paris, 5 May – 21 July 1999 (label verso)
Smith & Singer
Jul. 20, 2026
BESSIE DAVIDSON, Australia (1879 - 1965), Savoie Landscape, oil on panel, 25 x 33.5 cm. (9.83 x 13.18 in.)
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON Australia, (1879 - 1965) Savoie Landscape oil on panel signed lower left: Bessie Davidson
Lawsons
Jun. 28, 2026
Bessie Ellen DAVIDSON (Australie-France / 1879-1965) Capucines dans un vase Huile sur papier S
Est: €800 - €1,200
Bessie Ellen DAVIDSON (Australie-France / 1879-1965) Capucines dans un vase Huile sur papier Signé ‘Bessie Davidson’ (en bas à gauche) 19,5 x 26,1 cm ; avec cadre 31,5 x 38 cm
Osenat
Jun. 02, 2026
Bessie Ellen Davidson (1879-1965)
Est: €2,000 - €2,500
Bessie Ellen Davidson (1879-1965) 'Mountain View', signed lower left, oil on panel, 24 x 32 cm.
Zeeuws Veilinghuis
Apr. 29, 2026
Bessie Davidson, Flowers and books, c.1935
Est: $200,000 - $300,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) Flowers and books, c.1935 oil on plywood 81.0 x 60.0 cm signed lower left: Bessie Davidson signed verso: Bessie Davidson bears inscription verso: 14 PROVENANCE Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1967 EXHIBITED 4e Exposition du Salon des Tuileries, Néo-Parnasse, Paris, 21 May – 5 July 1936, cat. 416 (as ‘Nature morte’, partial label attached verso) Exhibition of Paintings by Bessie Davidson, Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide, 31 May – 13 June 1967, cat. 14 ESSAY Bessie Davidson was part of a group of trailblazing Australian women artists who travelled and studied in Europe during the early twentieth-century. Paris, in particular, was a favoured destination, ‘the only truly cosmopolitan city of the world for artists, whose work stands a better chance there than in any other art centre of being judged on its merits.’1 Offering a pluralist and progressive approach to art with private academies that provided tuition to women, the City of Light provided opportunities for them to exhibit alongside their male counterparts. Being away from home also had the added advantage of freeing these artists from family expectations and gendered social conventions of marriage and motherhood. When Davidson and her friend, Margaret Preston, arrived in Paris following several months in Munich in late 1904, they joined the ranks of other antipodean expatriates including Kathleen O’Connor, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Iso Rae. While many returned home after their study and travels, sharing what they had learned of international modernism, Davidson and a small number of others – including Agnes Goodsir, Anne Dangar and Stella Bowen – remained, establishing successful careers and living overseas for the rest of their lives, part of a transnational group of artists whose experiences and work radically extend traditional narratives of Australian art.2 Davidson returned to Adelaide in late 1906 but within four years she was again back in Paris. She reconnected with friends including the artist René-Xavier Prinet, who had taught her at la Grande Chaumière – probably also taking classes with him – and in 1912 moved to Montparnasse, where there was a large community of expatriate artists, into a studio apartment on Rue Boissonade. Located on the second floor of a late nineteenth-century building, the apartment had high ceilings and large windows that looked out over a central courtyard. Its interior and those of Davidson’s friends’ country houses often provided the settings for her paintings, revealing ‘… an ambience of bourgeois refinement, not grand but testifying to lives full of interest and occupation. Furniture is elegant but comfortable, shelves are filled with books and ornaments and walls hung generously with paintings. The many different interiors… reveal something of the lives and personalities of their owners.’3 First exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries, Paris in 1936, Flowers and books, c.1935, depicts an intimate corner of one such interior. It is an ambitious painting, significant in scale and complex in terms of its painterly approach. An informal arrangement of familiar objects sits atop a small table in a scene that is alive with movement, energised by short parallel brushstrokes that jostle and vibrate against each other. Contrasting white and red flowers in the centre of the image and the lemons in the foreground provide touches of vibrancy and bright colour within what, at first glance, seems like an overall subdued palette but which, on closer inspection, reveals a rich chromatic range. From the crumpled tablecloth that has casually been pushed aside to the reflections that are carefully recorded in the glass specimen vase, Davidson’s painterly prowess is on full display, as is the intense pleasure she found in her craft. ‘I can’t help this life that is in me – and I must paint or I feel ill…’4 Apart from visits to Australia in 1914 and again in 1950, Davidson remained in France, a resident of Rue Boissonade, for the rest of her life. As well as speaking fluent French, she developed a wide network of friends, was well-connected within the artistic community and established a successful career, exhibiting regularly at the Salons and having her work acquired by the French State and represented in important collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. In 1920 she was elected as an associate member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, only the fourth Australian to receive this acknowledgement – following George Lambert, Rupert Bunny and George Coates – and the first Australian woman ever to do so. Two years later, she was the first Australian artist to receive full membership. Davidson was a founding member of the Salon des Tuileries (1923) and the Société des Femmes Artistes Modernes (1930), serving as vice-president for its first decade of operation. Arguably the greatest accolade, however, came in 1931 when Davidson was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for services to the arts, the only Australian woman to have received this honour at the time.5 1. Edith Fry, cited in Speck, C., ‘Paris Calls’ in Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 2020, p. 17 2. See Rex Butler and A. D. S. Donaldson, ‘French, Floral and Female: A History of UnAustralian Art 1900 – 1930 (part 1)', Emaj, issue 5, 2010, at: https://www.index-journal.org/media/pages/emaj/issue-5/french-floral-and-female-by-rex-butler-and-ads-donaldson/010624421e-1727496756/butler-and-donaldson-french-floral-female.pdf (accessed March 2026) and Freak, E., Lock, T., and Tunnicliffe, W., ‘Dangerously Modern’ in Dangerously Modern: Australian Women Artists in Europe 1890 – 1940, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Art Gallery of South Australia, Sydney and Adelaide, 2025, pp. 13 – 19 3. Little, P., A Studio in Montparnasse: Bessie Davidson: An Australian Artist in Paris, Craftsman House, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 64 – 65 4. Bessie Davidson, cited in Little, ibid., p. 10 5. All biographical information is drawn from Little, op. cit. KIRSTY GRANT
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2025
Bessie Ellen Davidson, Australia, France (1879-1965), Chateau Villeneuve, Oil on plywood on board
Est: $25,000 - $30,000
Bessie Ellen Davidson Australia, France (1879-1965) Chateau Villeneuve Oil on plywood on board Signed lower right This Auction is held in Adelaide. Collection of items is from Wakerville, SA by appointment or some items can be posted.
Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers
Aug. 27, 2025
Bessie Davidson, Scottish Loch, c. 1935
Est: $18,000 - $24,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) Scottish Loch, c. 1935 oil on plywood 36.0 x 46.0 cm signed lower right: Bessie Davidson PROVENANCE Collection of the artist, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide EXHIBITED Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart - Two artists and the Parisian avant-garde, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 20 March - 26 July 2020 LITERATURE Curtin, P. (ed.), Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, p. 51 (illus.)
Deutscher and Hackett
Aug. 27, 2025
Bessie Davidson, Intérieur, c.1924
Est: $250,000 - $350,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) Intérieur, c.1924 oil on board 60.5 x 73.0 cm signed lower right: Bessie Davidson PROVENANCE Salon des Tuileries, Palais de Bois, Porte Maillot, Paris, 1924 Mr & Mrs James P. Cordill, New Orleans, USA, acquired from the above in 1924 Miss Shirley Cordill, New Orleans, USA, a gift from the above Thence by descent Private collection, New Orleans, USA EXHIBITED Salon des Tuileries, Palais de Bois, Porte Maillot, Paris, 1924, cat. 409 or 410 (label attached verso) ESSAY Intimate portraits of her female friends and their children in domestic interiors make up a significant and arguably the best-known part of Bessie Davidson’s oeuvre. They reflect the influence of Édouard Vuillard (1868 – 1940) and the American, Richard Miller (1875 – 1943), who taught her at Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and perhaps even the art of fellow Australian artist Rupert Bunny (1864 – 1947). Also, and more importantly however, they reflect the fabric and rich detail of her own life and experience as an expatriate in Paris from 1910 until her death in 1965. The settings of these paintings were always familiar to the artist, her own studio apartment in Montparnasse often featured in her work, as did the country homes of friends in rural France with whom she would holiday. As Davidson’s biographer, Penelope Little, has written, ‘The interiors… reveal an ambience of bourgeois refinement, not grand but testifying to lives full of interest and occupation. Furniture is elegant but comfortable, shelves are filled with books and ornaments and walls hung generously with paintings. The many different interiors… reveal something of the lives and personalities of their owners… Bessie’s work celebrated the quiet joys of friendship and domestic activity. Her paintings… are filled not only with her women friends but also with their children, their dogs and cats, their sewing, musical instruments, books and paint-boxes.’1 Painted around 1924, here Davidson depicts a woman focussed on an unidentified task – sewing or perhaps reading – who is seated in the corner of a room. French doors in front of her open onto a balcony and a view to buildings opposite and tree-tops beyond, suggesting it is probably Davidson’s own apartment on Rue Boissonade. It is an informal scene, the figure is simply dressed, a shawl draped casually on the table beside her, and the sparsely filled plate of fruit indicates we are being presented with a glimpse of the everyday rather than a carefully staged view. Using lively brushstrokes Davidson takes pleasure describing the details of the interior, from the striped clothing of the figure to the criss-crossed geometry of the cane chair and the patterned wallpaper. She also grapples with the pictorial challenges of portraying the play of light and shade, skilfully depicting the effects of sunlight shining through the delicate curtains and reflections in the highly polished surface of the table which are recorded in a luscious and painterly application of her medium. Davidson was active and well-connected within the Parisian artworld and in 1923, alongside Lucien Simon, René-Xavier Prinet and other friends, she was a founding member of the Salon des Tuileries. Formed as an alternative to the existing Salons in an effort to raise the overall quality of exhibited works, entry was by invitation only. Davidson exhibited in the inaugural Salon which, as the name indicates, was held in temporary pavilions next to the Jardin des Tuileries, and she continued to participate in following years.2 This painting was purchased from the 1924 Salon des Tuileries, one of three interiors Davidson showed that year, and has remained in the possession of the same American family ever since. 1. Little, P., A Studio in Montparnasse: Bessie Davidson: An Australian Artist in Paris, Craftsman House, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 64 – 65 2. See ibid., p. 94 KIRSTY GRANT
Deutscher and Hackett
Aug. 27, 2025
Bessie Davidson, (Interior with girl reading), c.1924
Est: $150,000 - $200,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) (Interior with girl reading), c.1924 tempera on compressed card 73.0 x 60.5 cm signed lower left: Bessie Davidson PROVENANCE Salon des Tuileries, Palais de Bois, Porte Maillot, Paris, 1924 Mr & Mrs James P. Cordill, New Orleans, USA, acquired in Paris c.1924 Miss Shirley Cordill, New Orleans, USA, a gift from the above Thence by descent Private collection, New Orleans, USA EXHIBITED Possibly: Salon des Tuileries, Palais de Bois, Porte Maillot, Paris, 1924, cat. 411-bis (as ‘Intérieur’’) RELATED WORK An interior, c.1920, oil, charcoal on composition board, 73.1 x 59.7 cm, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide ESSAY ‘The artist is there, you can feel her presence, yet she doesn’t throw herself at you nor leap upon you proclaiming her genius. There is nothing overwhelming in the welcome extended by these interiors, these landscapes. They make no effort to catch your eye or provoke astonishment. These are well-mannered paintings. But the more carefully you look at them, contemplate them, the more they will give up the secret of their discreet charm’.1 This is how Pierre Müller, art critic for Le Courier, characterised the paintings in Bessie Davidson’s first solo exhibition at Galerie Ecalle, Paris, which opened on New Years Eve in 1928. In addition to receiving a positive critical response, the exhibition marked a significant milestone in her career. Almost twenty years after the South Australian-born artist had returned to Paris, settling there permanently, this presentation of sixty works proclaimed her creative self-confidence and boldly staked a place among the ranks of contemporary artists working in France at the time. Interior with girl reading, c. 1924 is typical of the interiors for which Davidson is best known – painterly celebrations of relaxed feminine domestic spaces that often include a portrait of a female friend or child. The shuttered building visible through the open window locates the scene in Paris, most likely the artist’s second-floor studio apartment on the Rue Boissonade in Montparnasse which had ‘a vast high window composed of tall and slender panes overlooking the courtyard.’2 The furniture and style of decoration also is consistent with contemporary photographs and other paintings of Davidson’s residence. The distinctive green armchair on the left appears to be the same chair that features in the Art Gallery of South Australia’s painting, An interior, c. 1920 and indeed, the child in both works might also be the same subject. As much as this painting delights in the depiction of the patterns, shapes and textures of the elegantly homely furniture and furnishings, it is also a skilful exercise in the pictorial representation of light and shade. Davidson had been praised for the ability to ‘bathe her airy interiors with a luminous transparency’3 and this painting is no exception, capturing the bright shaft of sunlight shining through the windows in a diagonal sequence of brilliant highlights that enliven the scene. This work is painted in tempera, a medium which the New York Herald reported, ‘Miss Davidson prefers to apply… to cardboard… You can be more spontaneous than with [oils], more solid than with [watercolour]’4, noting that ‘[she] accommodates it with an ease so felicitous that it seems not so much a tool as a toy.’5 Revealing something of Davidson’s process, traces of preliminary underdrawing are visible throughout the image, as are sections of the cardboard support that remain unpainted (seen here most clearly in the shutters on the building opposite). A technique that was also used by artists including Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, incorporating the exposed board into the final composition of works in both tempera and in oil gives Davidson’s paintings an energy that speaks to the passion with which they were made. 1. Pierre Müller, cited in Little, P., A Studio in Montparnasse: Bessie Davidson: An Australian Artist in Paris, Craftsman House, Melbourne, 2003, pp. 99 – 100 2. ibid., p. 55 3. ibid, p. 90 4. See Little, ibid., p. 89 5. ibid. KIRSTY GRANT
Deutscher and Hackett
Aug. 20, 2025
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965), Paysage c1930
Est: $12,000 - $16,000
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SYDNEY BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Paysage c1930 oil on compressed card 23.0 x 31.0 cm; 55.0 x 63.0 cm (framed) signed lower left: Bessie Davidson
Menzies
Aug. 19, 2025
BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Red Tulips (circa 1925) oil on board 73.5 x 61 cm
Est: $150,000 - $200,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Red Tulips (circa 1925) oil on board signed ‘Bessie Davidson' lower left; signed and inscribed ‘Red Tulips / Bessie Davidson' verso (label) 73.5 x 61 cm PROVENANCE Bessie Davidson, Paris Private Collection Australian Paintings, Prints & Sculpture, Christie's Australia, Melbourne, 3 May 1988, lot 202, illustrated Tony Nicholas and Christina Nicholas, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Exhibition of Paintings by Bessie Davidson, The Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide, 31 May – 13 June 1967, no. 26 LITERATURE Roger McIlroy, ‘The Australian Bicentenary', in Mark Wrey (ed.), Christie's Review of the Season 1988, Phaidon, Christie's, Oxford, 1988, p. 76
Smith & Singer
Aug. 12, 2025
Bessie Ellen Davidson 1879-1965.
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
Bessie Ellen Davidson 1979-1965. 'Tree at Lake'. Oil on panel, signed lower left. 33 x 23 cm.
McKenzies Auctioneers
Jul. 10, 2025
λ BESSIE DAVIDSON (AUSTRALIAN 1879-1965), FIGURES IN A STREET, MOROCCO
Est: £4,000 - £6,000
λ BESSIE ELLEN DAVIDSON (AUSTRALIAN 1879-1965)FIGURES IN A STREET, MOROCCOOil on canvas-boardSigned (lower right)25 x 20cm (9¾ x 7¾ in.)
Dreweatts 1759 Fine Sales
Apr. 09, 2025
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965), Guéthary 1935
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SYDNEY BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Guéthary 1935 oil on compressed card 29.0 x 41.0 cm; 40.0 x 52.0 cm (framed) signed lower right: Bessie Davidson dated and inscribed verso: Guéthary 1935
Menzies
Nov. 26, 2024
BESSIE DAVIDSON, PAYSAGE PUYCERDA (ESPAGNE), C.1930
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) PAYSAGE PUYCERDA (ESPAGNE), c.1930 oil on compressed card 22.0 x 27.0 cm signed lower right: Bessie Davidson inscribed with title verso: No 4. Paysage Puycerda (Espagne) PROVENANCE Private collection, France Montargis Enchères, France, 27 January 2024, lot 282 Private collection, France
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 26, 2024
BESSIE DAVIDSON, LE CHATEAU
Est: $25,000 - $35,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) LE CHATEAU oil on plywood on composition board 88.5 x 72.5 cm signed lower right: Bessie Davidson bears inscription verso: 12 PROVENANCE Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide (label attached verso) Private collection, Adelaide EXHIBITED Exhibition of Paintings by Bessie Davidson, Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide, 31 May – 13 June 1967, cat. 12
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 26, 2024
BESSIE DAVIDSON, FLEURS
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) FLEURS oil on canvas on board 46.0 x 55.0 cm signed with initials lower left: B.D. signed and inscribed with title verso: "Fleurs" / Bessie Davidson / Paris PROVENANCE probably Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide Private collection, Adelaide
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 21, 2024
BESSIE DAVIDSON, (1879 - 1965), Untitled (River Scene), oil on canvas on board, 45 x 60 cm. (17.7 x 23.6 in.), frame: 59 x 73 x 6 cm. (23.2 x 28.7 x 2.3 in.)
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) Untitled (River Scene) oil on canvas on board signed lower right: Bessie Davidson
Lawsons
Nov. 20, 2024
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965), The Laundry Boat on the River Seine, Paris
Est: $12,000 - $16,000
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW SOUTH WALES BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) The Laundry Boat on the River Seine, Paris oil on canvas-board 20.0 x 22.5 cm; 32.0 x 35.0 cm (framed) signed with initials lower left: BD
Menzies
Nov. 20, 2024
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965), Still Life with Pansies
Est: $25,000 - $35,000
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SYDNEY BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Still Life with Pansies oil on board 38.5 x 46.0 cm; 54.0 x 61.0 cm (framed) signed lower right: Bessie Davidson signed and inscribed verso: Bessie Davidson/ 18 Boisonne/ Paris
Menzies
May. 14, 2024
BESSIE DAVIDSON, PAYSAGE PUYCERDA (ESPAGNE), C.1930
Est: $12,000 - $16,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) PAYSAGE PUYCERDA (ESPAGNE), c.1930 oil on board 22.0 x 27.0 cm 28.5 x 33.5 cm (frame) signed lower right: Bessie Davidson bears inscription verso: No 4. Paysage Puycerda (Espagne) PROVENANCE Private collection, France Montargis Enchères, France, 27 January 2024, lot 282 Private collection, France This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery
Deutscher and Hackett
Apr. 17, 2024
§ BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Guéthary (1948) oil on composition board 19 x 24 cm
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
§ BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Guéthary (1948) oil on composition board signed 'Bessie Davidson' lower right; signed and inscribed 'Bessie Davidson / Guethary' verso 19 x 24 cm PROVENANCE Bessie Davidson, France Private Collection, France
Smith & Singer
Sep. 18, 2023
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Young Woman Reading oil on canvas laid on board 15.5 x 20.5cm
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Young Woman Reading oil on canvas laid on board signed lower left: Bessie Davidson 15.5 x 20.5cm PROVENANCE: The Artist Mrs. Elliot Thence by descent Masterpiece @IXL Gallery, Hobart 2009 Private collection, Hobart Gowans Auctions, Hobart, 10 November 2021, lot 72 Private collection, Melbourne
Leonard Joel
Aug. 23, 2023
§ BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Still Life with Irises (circa 1920) oil on composition board 72 x 49 cm
Est: $140,000 - $180,000
§ BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Still Life with Irises (circa 1920) oil on composition board signed 'Bessie Davidson' lower left 72 x 49 cm PROVENANCE Bessie Davidson, Paris Private Collection Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne Private Collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above in 2013 EXHIBITED Spring Exhibition 1981, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 10-24 September 1981, no. 11, illustrated Modern Australian Painting, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, 14 April - 5 May 2012, no. 2, illustrated Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 20 March - 26 July 2020 LITERATURE Tansy Curtain, Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 2020, p. 63
Smith & Singer
May. 03, 2023
BESSIE DAVIDSON, GUÉTHARY (BASSES-PYRÉNÉES), 1948
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) GUÉTHARY (BASSES-PYRÉNÉES), 1948 oil on panel 19.0 x 24.0 cm signed lower left: Bessie Davidson signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: Guéthary (Basses-Pyrénées) / Bessie Davidson / April 1948 PROVENANCE Private collection, France
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 22, 2022
Bessie Davidson (1879-1965)
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
Villeneuve, France oil on board, signed l.l.c. 'Davidson Bessie'
Shapiro Auctioneers
Sep. 14, 2022
BESSIE DAVIDSON, THE RIVER LEYSSE, CHAMBÉRY, C.1933
Est: $10,000 - $15,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) THE RIVER LEYSSE, CHAMBÉRY, c.1933 oil on card 23.0 x 28.0 cm signed lower left: Bessie Davidson PROVENANCE Private collection, Rouen, France, acquired directly from the artist, c.1945 Thence by descent Private collection, Rouen, France Sotheby's, Sydney, 28 June 2005, lot 393C (as ‘Stream in the Alps’) Private collection, Sydney
Deutscher and Hackett
Jun. 29, 2022
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965), Brittany c1930s
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Brittany c1930s oil on board 27.0 x 32.0 cm
Menzies
Jun. 29, 2022
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965), The Village Stream 1912
Est: $4,000 - $6,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) The Village Stream 1912 watercolour and gouache on card 20.5 x 24.5 cm signed and dated lower right: Bessie Davidson/ 1912 bears inscription on fragment of old backing attached verso: Village/ Stream
Menzies
May. 04, 2022
BESSIE DAVIDSON, CHAMBÉRY LANDSCAPE, FRANCE,
Est: $9,000 - $12,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) CHAMBÉRY LANDSCAPE, FRANCE oil on board 18.5 x 24.0 cm PROVENANCE Private collection, Paris, acquired directly from the artist Christie’s, Melbourne, 18 April 1994, lot 261 (as ‘Savoie Landscapes (2)’) Tim Goodman, Sydney Goodmans Auctioneers, Sydney, 30 July 2001, lot 97 Private collection, New South Wales
Deutscher and Hackett
May. 04, 2022
BESSIE DAVIDSON, STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS, C.1935
Est: $20,000 - $30,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS, c.1935 oil on wood 41.0 x 33.0 cm signed lower right: Bessie Davidson bears inscription on old label verso: Salon des Tuileries / Bessie Davidson / 40 rue Boissonade / No. 3 Nature morte / (fleurs) bears inscription verso: D H6 3 PROVENANCE Private collection, France Private collection, France, acquired from the above in February 2002 Private collection, France EXHIBITED Probably: 14e Exposition du Salon des Tuileries, Néo-Parnasse, Paris, 21 May – 5 July 1936, cat. 416 (as ‘Nature Morte’, label attached verso)
Deutscher and Hackett
May. 04, 2022
BESSIE DAVIDSON, TULIPS WITH WHITE POT, C.1935
Est: $50,000 - $80,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) TULIPS WITH WHITE POT, c.1935 oil on board 31.5 x 98.5 cm signed lower right: Bessie Davidson signed and inscribed with title on backing paper verso: Tulips with White Pot / Bessie Davidson PROVENANCE The artist’s studio, until 1965 The Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide (label attached verso) Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Victoria, acquired from the above in September 1981 EXHIBITED Exhibition of Paintings by Bessie Davidson, The Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide, 31 May – 13 June 1967, cat. 10 Spring Exhibition, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 10 – 24 September 1981, cat. 112 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) RELATED WORK Still life with pot and gladioli, c.1935, oil on board, 57.0 x 105.0 cm, in the collection of Kaye McKellar, South Australia ESSAY We are grateful to Brenda Martin Thomas, wife of the late David Thomas AO, for kindly allowing us to reproduce David's research and writing in this catalogue entry. Adelaide-born Bessie Davidson spent most of her creative life in Paris, absorbing the elegance and sophistication which we associate with the French capital and manifesting it in her art. Such qualities imbue her landscapes, and especially the interiors and still life paintings in which she excels – Tulips with White Pot, c.1935 being a fine example. Her excellence in this genre was inevitably influenced by her earlier association with Margaret Preston (then Rose McPherson), in whose studio she studied from 1899 to 1904. Together, they travelled abroad, Davidson continuing her studies at the Munich Künstlerinner Verein, and in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Although Davidson returned to Adelaide in 1906 and taught for a number of years with Preston, her home became Paris where, from 1910 onwards, she would remain for the rest of her life. Significantly while Davidson loved France, like her friend and fellow-Australian expatriate artist resident in Paris, Rupert Bunny, she never gave up her Australian citizenship. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Davidson joined the French Red Cross and worked voluntarily as a nurse. Afterwards, her involvement in French life and art led to her being the first Australian woman to be elected to the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also a founder-member of the Salon des Tuileries, and vice president of the Société Nationale des Femmes Artistes Modernes. Her contribution to French art and to the nation resulted in the 1931 award of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. She exhibited regularly in Paris and London, being included in the 1938 L'Exposition du Groupe Feminin at the Petit Palais and, the following year, in the exhibition of French art that toured the U.S.A. Internationally, she is represented in the Musée d'Art Moderne, Musée d'Orsay, and Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, as well as in collections in The Netherlands, Edinburgh, and Fife. In 1999, the exhibition Bessie Davidson: Une Australienne en France, 1880 – 1965 was held at the Australian Embassy, Paris, May – July 1999 and more recently, the Bendigo Art Gallery staged the exhibition Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris. Recording the visual pleasures of the everyday with the light-filled verve of French Impressionism, Davidson later developed a more prominent sense of form and compositional structure closer aligned to Paul Cézanne and Post Impressionism. It is this ‘Cézannesque’ style – which Davidson’s biographer, Penelope Little, describes as characterising ‘her most confident and productive years’1 – that is celebrated in Tulips with White Pot. Featuring the rich textural appeal and subtle sophistication that distinguishes Davidson as an artist of outstanding ability, her brushwork here is full of variety, with both vertical and horizontal strokes creating a fascinating picture surface where the various still life objects morph into the formal elements of painting itself – composition, colour, form and texture. Moreover, the unusual horizontal format and close-range viewpoint creates an overwhelming feeling of intimacy, of having the privilege of being alone with the still life which no doubt derives from its setting – most likely having been painted in the artist’s Paris studio at Rue Boissonade, Montparnasse, where Davidson lived from 1910 until her death. 1. Little, P., A Studio in Montparnasse; Bessie Davidson: An Australian in Paris, Craftsman House, Melbourne, 2003, p. 87
Deutscher and Hackett
May. 04, 2022
BESSIE DAVIDSON, LA ROBE BLEUE, 1911
Est: $300,000 - $400,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) LA ROBE BLEUE, 1911 oil on canvas 92.5 x 65.0 cm signed and dated lower left: Bessie Davidson 11 bears inscription on label verso: 191 PROVENANCE Beaussant – Lefevre, Paris, 11 December 2009, lot 217 Private collection Sotheby’s, London, 13 July 2010, lot 139 Private collection, New South Wales EXHIBITED Salon de la Société National des Beaux Arts, Grand Palais, Paris, 16 April – 30 June 1911, cat. 372 (as ‘Dame en robe bleue’) Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart – Two artists and the Parisian avant–garde, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 20 March – 26 July 2020 LITERATURE ‘Australasians at Paris Salons’, The Argus, Melbourne, 17 June 1911, p. 7 (as ‘Lady in the Blue Dress’) Curtin, P., (ed.), Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, p. 63 ESSAY In her catalogue essay accompanying the recent, long-overdue survey of Bessie Davidson’s achievements at the Bendigo Art Gallery, curator Tansy Curtain suggested the artist’s ‘depictions of women at leisure are perhaps the most intriguing and revealing of all her works’1 – and certainly, the magnificent La Robe Bleue, 1911 featured here would seem no exception. As the Argus critic, reviewing the representation of Australian artists at the 1911 Paris Salon, enthusiastically exclaimed of the painting (albeit with a touch of gender-prejudice typical of the era): ‘The city of Adelaide has produced an artist of rare and dainty talent in Miss Bessie Davidson. Her two pictures possess a charm special to the best painting of her sex. Considered as the work of a woman too much praise cannot be given to Miss Davidson’s “Lady in the Blue Dress”. Refinement, grace of execution, and rare colour are among its qualities.’2 An important work dating from her early life in Paris, La Robe Bleue captures exquisitely Davidson’s predilection for the subject of a woman alone in a domestic space, and the variety of states – loneliness, introversion, or pleasured independence – that might imply. In the present case, the figure appears in contemplation of some treasured possession (perhaps a photograph in a frame) and the mood is contented, with her elegant costume and surrounds conveying an air of genteel and cultured respectability. As with her depictions of women at leisure elsewhere, the figure is passive and does not meet our gaze; rather the viewer sneaks a furtive glimpse of her in a private moment of reflection or nostalgia. With its delicate pastel palette, mastery of tonalism and pensive subject, the composition unmistakably betrays the influence of American-born, British-based post-impressionist painter, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903) in masterpieces such as his Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl, 1864 (Tate Gallery, London) and Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, 1871 – 74 (The Frick Collection, New York). Also discernible are striking affinities with the oeuvre of prominent American artist, Richard Miller (1875 – 1943) who was working and teaching in Paris at the same time as Davidson, and with whom she took classes at the Académie Colarossi. Described by fellow Australian female expatriate, Hilda Rix Nicholas, as causing ‘a stir in Paris’3, Miller was renowned for his distinctive, highly decorative brand of impression, famously declaring in 1912 that that ‘Art’s mission is not literary, the telling of a story, but decorative, the conveying of a pleasant optical sensation.’4 Invariably depicting stylish Parisian women at leisure in luxurious, domestic settings or sunny, brilliantly-lit gardens, he frequently used his wife as a model and, given her profile resemblance to the figure in La Robe Bleue, it may well be that she is featured here. 1. Curtin, T., ‘Bessie Davidson: Painter of domestic avant-garde’ in Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, p. 13 2. ‘Australasians at Paris Salons’, The Argus, 17 June 1911 p. 7 (as ‘Lady in the Blue Dress’) 3. Hilda Rix Nicholas, ‘In search of beauty’, 14 May 1908, in ‘Annotated scrapbook’, Hilda Rix Nicholas Papers, National Library of Australia, Canberra. 4. Richard Miller, quoted at https://www.nadatabase.org/2018/07/17/richard-edward-miller/ VERONICA ANGELATOS
Deutscher and Hackett
Dec. 05, 2021
DAVIDSON Bessie (1879-1965), 'Country Stream', Oil on Board, 21.5x26cm
Est: $6,000 - $10,000
DAVIDSON, Bessie (1879-1965) 'Country Stream' Provenance: Lister Gallery, Perth, c1980; private collection, Perth. Oil on Board 21.5x26cm
Davidson Auctions
Nov. 10, 2021
BESSIE DAVIDSON, GRENOBLE, 1955
Est: $16,000 - $20,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) GRENOBLE, 1955 oil on board 34.5 x 41.0 cm signed and inscribed with title lower right: Bessie Davidson / Grenoble PROVENANCE Collection of the artist, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Adelaide EXHIBITED Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart – Two artists and the Parisian avant–garde, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 20 March – 26 July 2020 LITERATURE Curtin, P., (ed.), Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, pp. 62 (illus.), 64 RELATED WORK Grenoble, 1943, oil on board, 17.0 x 23.0 cm, private collection, illus., in Curtin, P., (ed.), Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, p. 59
Deutscher and Hackett
Nov. 10, 2021
BESSIE DAVIDSON, LECTURE AU JARDIN, c.1935
Est: $280,000 - $350,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 - 1965) LECTURE AU JARDIN, c.1935 oil on plywood 94.0 x 114.0 cm signed lower right: Bessie Davidson PROVENANCE Private collection, Normandy, France Ornes Enchères, Alençon, France, 31 May 2014, lot 11 (as ‘La lecture au jardin’) Private collection, United Kingdom Daguerre Auctions, Paris, 27 May 2015, lot 252 (as ‘Femme à la chaise longue’) Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Justin Miller Art, Sydney Private collection, New South Wales EXHIBITED Collectors’ Exhibition, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, 6 August – 29 October 2016, (illus. in exhibition catalogue, pp. 46 – 7) Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart – Two artists and the Parisian avant–garde, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 20 March – 26 July 2020 LITERATURE Curtin, P., (ed.), Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, illus. front cover, pp. 45, 64 and illus. front cover ESSAY Bessie Davidson’s paintings have an engaging French accent, Gallic in mood and sophistication. Her still lifes, such as Autumn Table at Villeneuve, c.1938 (private collection), express the pleasures of food and wine, of seasonal tables abundant with fruits and flowers. Interiors are feminine and domestic, intimately reflective of those who live in them, while figures are elegantly at ease, attired in light colours of lively of texture. In her recent essay on Davidson, Tansy Curtin wrote: ‘Davidson’s depictions of women at leisure are perhaps the most intriguing and revealing of all her works. These women appear passive, not actively engaged with the viewer’.1 Davidson was born in Adelaide and studied under Margaret Preston (then Rose McPherson), first visiting Paris with her in 1904. Attending the Académie de la Grande, she exhibited in the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français and the Societe des Beaux-Arts. Although returning to Adelaide in 1906, four years later she finally settled in Paris. Her apartment on the Rue Boissonade, Montparnasse became her home and studio. Like Rupert Bunny, her countryman, she exhibited regularly in Paris, gaining much critical recognition. With ever-deepening French connections, Davidson’s life-long love is reflected in her numerous activities, associations and awards. Working as a nurse during World War I, in 1931 she was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for art and humanity. The first Australian woman so honoured, she was also the first to be elected to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. A foundation member of the Salon des Tuileries and the Société Nationale des Indépendants, in 1930 she became Vice-President of the Société Nationale de Femmes Artistes Modernes. Although she loved France, like Bunny, she never gave up her Australian citizenship. The profiling of figures, seated indoors or in quiet, sunlit gardens, interested Davidson throughout her life in paintings characterised by the interplay of textured surfaces and pictorial illusions of depth. Fine examples include A French Interior, 1911 and Mother and Child, 1914, both in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Together with Lecture au Jardin, ( Reading in the Garden), c.1935, each shares eye-catching figures and their gentle curves of relaxation. Recording the visual pleasures of the everyday with the light-filled verve of French Impressionism, Davidson later developed a more prominent sense of form and compositional structure allied to Paul Cézanne and Post Impressionism. It is this ‘Cézannesque’ style, which Davidson’s biographer, Penelope Little, describes as characterising ‘her most confident and productive years’.2 Celebrated in Lecture au Jardin, its brushwork is full of variety, with both vertical and horizontal strokes creating a fascinating picture surface. Images morph into the formal elements of painting - composition, colour, form and texture. Bathed in entrancing light, colours of subtle combination and harmonies of powerful diagonals beguile as one is drawn through the trees into the landscape beyond. Growing in self-assurance, Davidson moved more towards the semi-abstract from the 1920s onwards. A ready illustration of this transition is provided by comparing Femme au Canapé Rayé, 1919 (private collection)3 with the work on offer, and the closely related sundrenched, La Robe Jaune ( The Yellow Dress), 1931 (private collection, Sydney). Acquired by the prestigious Musée d’Art Moderne, Musée d’Orsay and the Musée du Petit Palais, in Paris, in 1999 the Australian Embassy, Paris, presented the exhibition, Bessie Davidson: Une Australienne en France, 1880-1965. And last year, the Bendigo Art Gallery staged Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart – Two artists and the Parisian avant-garde, which included Lecture au Jardin. Many years ago, a correspondent wrote from London that Bessie Davidson holds: ‘a distinguished position in the art world, perhaps the most gifted of Australian women painters’.4 1. Curtin, T., ‘Bessie Davidson: Painter of domestic avant-garde’, in Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, p. 13 2. Little, P., A Studio in Montparnasse; Bessie Davidson: An Australian in Paris, Craftsman House, Melbourne 2003, p. 87 3. Ibid., p. 179 (illus.) 4. ‘Letter from London: Miss Davidson succeeds’, News, Adelaide, 12 March 1929, p. 6. cited in Curtin, op.cit., p. 11 DAVID THOMAS
Deutscher and Hackett
Apr. 20, 2021
BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Interieur (1935) oil on board
Est: $200,000 - $250,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Interieur (1935) oil on board signed 'Bessie Davidson' lower right; signed and inscribed 'Davidson / 'Interieur' verso (on label) 124.5 x 104.5 cm PROVENANCE Bessie Davidson, Paris Private Collection, Adelaide, by descent from the above Osborne Gallery, Adelaide Private Collection, Adelaide, acquired from the above in 1967 Private Collection, Melbourne, by descent from the above Australian and International Fine Art, Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 16 April 2008, lot 29, illustrated Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITED Bessie Davidson, Osbourne Art Gallery, Adelaide, 31 May - 13 June 1967, no. 28 Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 20 March - 26 July 2020 LITERATURE Tansy Curtain, Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 2020, p. 64
Smith & Singer
Apr. 20, 2021
§ BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Still Life (1930s) oil on board
Est: $15,000 - $25,000
§ BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879-1965 Still Life (1930s) oil on board signed 'Bessie Davidson' lower right 21.5 x 27 cm PROVENANCE: Bessie Davidson, Paris Private Collection, Adelaide, by descent from the above Adelaide Festival of Arts Auction, Theodore Bruce Auctions, Adelaide, 18 March 2012, lot 125, 'Floral Still Life with Green Glazed Hexagonal Vase', illustrated Private Collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above EXHIBITIONS: Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 20 March - 26 July 2020 LITERATURE: Tansy Curtain, Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, 2020, p. 64
Smith & Singer
Nov. 19, 2020
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Still Life with Books and Candlestick 1959
Est: $35,000 - $45,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Still Life with Books and Candlestick 1959 oil on board 70.0 x 60.0 cm signed and dated lower right: Bessie Davidson 1959
Menzies
Nov. 11, 2020
BESSIE DAVIDSON, INTÉRIEUR, c.1938
Est: $50,000 - $70,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879 – 1965) INTÉRIEUR, c.1938 oil on board 81.0 x 64.5 cm signed lower left: Bessie Davidson signed and inscribed verso: Bessie Davidson / No. 2 / 3 PROVENANCE Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide Warren & Bunty Bonython, Adelaide Mossgreen, Adelaide, 4 May 2014, lot 177 Private collection, New South Wales EXHIBITED 28e Groupe des Artistes de ce Temps (28th Group of Artists of our Time), Petit Palais, Paris, March – June 1938, cat. 2 Salon des Femmes Peintres (Salon of Women Artists), Paris, October 1938, cat.3 (label attached verso) Possibly: Bessie Davidson, Osborne Art Gallery, Adelaide, 31 May – 13 June 1967 Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 20 March – 26 July 2020 LITERATURE Wilson, S. C., From the Shadow into the light: South Australian Women Artists Since Colonisation, Delmont Pty Ltd, South Australia, 1988, pl.43, p. 31 (illus. as ‘Interior’) Curtin, P. (ed.), Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2020, p.63 (as ‘Interieur 1930s’) ESSAY Adelaide-born Bessie Davidson spent most of her creative life in Paris, absorbing the elegance and sophistication which we associate with the French capital and manifesting it in her art. It touches her landscapes, and especially the interiors and still life paintings in which she excels- Intérieur being a fine example. Her excellence in this genre was, no doubt, influenced by her earlier association with Margaret Preston (then Rose McPherson), in whose studio she studied from 1899 to 1904. Together, they travelled abroad, Davidson continuing her studies at the Munich Künstlerinner Verein, and in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Although Davidson returned to Adelaide in 1906 and taught for a number of years with Preston, her home became Paris where, from 1910 until her death, her studio was in Rue Boissonade, Montparnasse. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, she joined the French Red Cross and worked voluntarily as a nurse. Afterwards, her involvement in French life and art led to her being the first Australian woman to be elected to the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also a founder-member of the Salon des Tuileries, and vice president of the Société Nationale des Femmes Artistes Modernes. Her contribution to French art and to the nation resulted in the 1931 award of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. She exhibited regularly in Paris and London, being included in the 1938 ‘L'Exposition du Groupe Feminin’ at the Petit Palais and, the following year, in the exhibition of French art that toured the U.S.A. Internationally, she is represented in the Musée d'Art Moderne, Musée d'Orsay, and Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, as well as in collections in The Netherlands, Edinburgh, and Fife. Like her friend and fellow-Australian artist resident in Paris, Rupert Bunny, she never gave up her Australian citizenship. The exhibition ‘Bessie Davidson: Une Australienne en France, 1880-1965’, was held at the Australian Embassy, Paris, May-July 1999 and recently the Bendigo Art Gallery curated the exhibition ‘Bessie Davidson: An Australian Impressionist in Paris’. DAVID THOMAS
Deutscher and Hackett
Sep. 23, 2020
A WOOD FIGURE OF BUDDHA MYANMAR, PAGAN PERIOD, 12TH/13TH CENTURY
Est: $40,000 - $60,000
A WOOD FIGURE OF BUDDHA MYANMAR, PAGAN PERIOD, 12TH/13TH CENTURY With remains of red and gilt lacquer 64 3/4 in. (164.5 cm) high For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
Jun. 26, 2019
Bessi Ellen DAVIDSON (1879-1965)
Est: €2,000 - €3,000
La couture dans le jardin et paysage
Maison Verneuil
Dec. 14, 2018
Bessie Ellen Davidson (1879–1965) - Flowers in a glass jug
Est: £6,000 - £8,000
Bessie Ellen Davidson (1879–1965) Flowers in a glass jug oil on board 17 ¾ x 15in. (45.2 x 38.1cm.)
Christie's
Oct. 25, 2018
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) - Fleurs, 1942 39.5 x 32cm
Est: $8,000 - $12,000
Bessie Davidson (1879 - 1965) Fleurs, 1942 oil on wood panel 39.5 x 32cm signed lower left; signed, dated and inscribed verso
Lawsons
Oct. 10, 2018
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Kitzbuhel, Austria oil on board
Est: $12,000 - $16,000
BESSIE DAVIDSON (1879-1965) Kitzbuhel, Austria oil on board double-sided signed on stretcher bar verso 92 x 73cm PROVENANCE: Private collection Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, 10 October 2014, lot 67 Private collection, Sydney
Leonard Joel