Artist Details

• First Name Cecil
• Maiden Name Clark
• Surname Davis
• Spouse’s Full Name Richard Harding Davis (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 18, 1864-April 11, 1916 New York, New York), journalist, war correspondent, author and playwright a “marriage blanc”; married May 4, 1899, divorced 1912
• Names and Birth Years of Children n/a
• Birth Date July 12, 1877
• Birth Place Chicago, Illinois
• Death Date September 12, 1955
• Death Place Marion, Massachusetts
• Residence(s) 1912: 21 Pearson St., Chicago, Illinois
  
  summers and later life in Marion, Massachusetts at “
  
  Rio de Janiero, Brazil
  
  They lived a year in London, England and travelled the Congo, and South Africa.
• Active In Chicago, Illinois
  
  Marion, Massachusetts
• Categories Painter-Oil
• Training largely self-taught; Farmington School in Connecticut; studied independently with painter Ellen Emmett Rand (cousin of Henry James;  3 months at Art Institute of Chicago; “received helpful criticism from John Singer Sargent and other painter friends”
  
• Relevant Travel England, Europe, Brazil, the Congo, and South Africa
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History February 1-28, 1912: Sixteenth Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait of Miss L.C. Silver
  
  November 5-December 8, 1912: The Twenty-Fifth Annual Exhibition of American Sculpture and Oil Paintings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait, Mrs. George Higginson, Jr.
  
  January 28-February 21, 1913: Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait of H. Townsend Davis; Portrait, Joseph Medill Patterson
  
  November 14-December 25, 1913: Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait, Miss Dudley
  
  January 22-February 1, 1914: Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Miss Waller; Miss Emily Ryerson
  
  March 2-31, 1914: Nineteenth Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Mrs. Rufus Granger
  
  November 3-December 6, 1914: Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait, Mrs. Donald Cutler
  
  1915: Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, California
  
  February 8-March 5, 1916: Twentieth Annual Exhibition, Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait; Portrait: Sam Sothern; Portrait: Mrs. Prescott Bigelow
  
  November 2-December 7, 1916: Twenty-Ninth Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait: George F. Porter
  
  February 1-March 4, 1917: Twenty-First Annual Exhibition, Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait: Captain Roald Amundsen; Portrait: Miss Sanborn; Portrait: Miss Bradley
  
  November 8, 1917-January 2, 1918: Thirtieth Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait of Mrs. John McCutcheon
  
  February 14-March 17, 1918: Twenty-Second Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: The Artist; Polly
  
  November 7, 1918-January 1, 1919: Thirty-First Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Col. Charles Howland
  
  February 13-March 30, 1919: Twenty-Third Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Lionel Barrymore; Sam Sothern in “Dear Brutus”; Miss Thayer
  
  January 29-March 3, 1920: Twenty-Fourth Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Night Bomber; Portrait
  
  January 25-February 28, 1921: Twenty-Fifth Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait of Sewell Gardner, oil on canvas
  
  November 3-December 11, 1921: Thirty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait, Mrs. D.
  
  November 2-December 10, 1922: Thirty-Fifth Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Portrait: Captain Lord Carnegie
  
  October 30-December 14, 1924: Thirty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculptures, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Mlle. d’Huisdal
  
  January 30-March 10, 1925: Twenty-Ninth Annual Exhibition by Chicago and Vicinity Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois:  Portrait Mrs. B.W.
  
  February 4-March 14, 1926: Thirtieth Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois:  Mrs. Armitage Whitman
  
  1912-1932: Chicago Arts Club
  

  1924: Nineteenth Annual Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists, City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri

  
  

  April 16, 1926: Decorative Painting and Sculpture by National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York

  
  Chicago Society of Artists exhibitions
  
  Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC
  
  Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, New York
  
  National Academy of Design, New York, New York
  
  National Association of Women Artists, New York, New York
  
  Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
  
  St. Louis, Missouri: Portrait of Mrs. Stewart
  
  Society of Independent Artists, New York, New York
  
   
  
   
  
  2011: Skirting Convention: Illinois Women Artists, 1840-1940, Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, Illinois; Eames MacVeigh, oil on canvas; Collection of Chicago History Museum
• Collections Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Illinois
  
  The Marion Art Center, Marion, Massachusetts
  
  Sippican Historical Society, Marion, Massachusetts
• Publications Bidstrup, Wendy Todd. Cecil Clark Davis: A Self Portrait (1877-1955). 2013. Rosbe, Judith Westland. Marion Art Center. Arcadia, 2007.
• Memberships Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Chicago Society of Artists, Chicago, Illinois
  
  The Colony Club
  
  National Association of Women Artists
  
  National Association of Women Painters & Sculptors
• Awards March 2-31, 1914: Honorable mention Nineteenth Annual Exhibition of Works by Aritsts of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Rufus Granger
  
  1918: Prize for Portraiture, Municipal Art League, Chicago, Illinois
  
  1920:Gold Medal of the Salon, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  
  1925: Gold Medal, Philadelphia Art Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  
  1926: Portrait Prize, National Association of Women Painters & Sculptors,
  
  1932: Popular Prize, Newport Art Association, Newport
  
  1934: Portrait Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
• Archive(s) Richard Harding Davis Letters Concerning South Africa and the Boer War, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Virginia
• Website(s) page on Lighting the Way: Historic Women of the Southwest website
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  article by Katherine Glosser, Mar 22, 2019

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
• Biography parents: wealthy Chicago industrialist John Marshall Clark (1836-1918) and Mary Louise Qua (1849-1936), a concert pianist
  
  Her best friend was the actress Ethel Barrymore. A good friend, and best man at her wedding, was Charles Dana Gibson, who modeled his Gibson Girl and Gibson Man after Cecil Davis and her husband.
  
  She stopped using “Davis” on her paintings during the 1910 estrangement, too it back up later once he expressed regret for treating her so badly.