A Native Talent - John Scarlett Davis (1804-1845)

Leominster Library, in partnership with the Hereford Museum, is offering viewers a rare opportunity to see the work of this accomplished artist in his native town.   The son of a watchmaker, John Scarlett Davis was born in Leominster in 1804, at 2 High Street. The name Scarlett was his mother’s maiden name.

John’s artistic talent showed at an early age and self-portraits in the exhibition, show a boy and man observed with striking honesty.

An early picture of the Market Hall in Leominster demonstrates a naive style, typical of a well-established tradition of English provincial art; examples of which he may well have seen as a boy. This picture also had a working clock mechanism and may have been painted for his father’s shop.

John was schooled in Leominster and possibly had tuition from another notable artist, David Cox, who was resident in Hereford at the time.

In 1816, the young Scarlett Davis won an award from the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts for a copy of an engraving. Soon his talent took him to London and the Royal Academy of Art Schools.

He travelled widely on the Continent as a mature artist, a superb draughtsman and a subtle colourist and completed many paintings of Church interiors and the like.

The exhibition, between 4 – 28 September, in the Meeting Room, shows around thirty images displaying the range of his talent from his earliest beginnings to his mature style, in drawings, prints, watercolours and oils.

These works are from the reserve collections of the Hereford Museum. Other works by Scarlett Davis are also on view in the Leominster Museum.