Cottage in a Field
coloured paper collage
43 x 56cm

Provenance:
Sale; Sotheby's, 8 October 2008, lot 152

Formerly a painter associated with the St Ives set such as Heron, Nicholson and Scott, by 1952, Francis Davison, no doubt influenced by his wife, Margaret Mellis, had completely abandoned representational painting in favour of the abstract paper collages he is famed for today.

One of four children adopted by millionaire couple, George and Joan Davison, Francis Davison spent his childhood in Cannes before moving to Essex in 1932, to attend St George’s boarding school where he met his lifelong friend and colleague, Patrick Heron. Despite reading English and Anthropology at St Catherine's, Cambridge, Davison aspired to become a poet. However, after relocating to St Ives and meeting Mellis in 1946, Davison discovered a love of painting. Mellis later recalled: ‘he only started painting because I did, I was always painting. I had the influence on him. In fact, I brought him up. Then he got frightfully good and went right past.’

Davison’s early career was marred by a resounding failure to attract any critical or financial success, rather, his main income stream was generated by selling eggs from the pair’s smallholding. Davison’s pivot towards collage was, therefore, logical not only artistically, but also practically, as the production of such works was considerably cheaper than working in oils. Although Davison’s career was spent in relative obscurity, achieving only limited success during the 1970s and 1980s, since his death, in 1984, his work has received widespread recognition and has been the subject of several critically acclaimed retrospectives.

Condition Report

The paper as you would expect, with creases, abrasions, and some minor accretions. Appears to be some glue bubbles beneath the surface in areas, though this is intrinsic to the work, rather than the result of any damage, The work looks to be mounted onto a thick cardboard rectangle and appears to be fixed at each corner. There is so undulation of the surface present along the left and right hand edges of the sheet, where the surface is not bonded with the support. All corners with some degree of damage.