Laura H Davey cheated a little

[Des_Beechey]

Laura H Davey was the artist responsible for a group of 12 paintings published as postcards by W.T. Pater in 1906. She ran an art school and lived in Geelong, which made me wonder why she was painting scenes around Launceston. The answer is that she made her paintings from photographs, rather than sitting out in the fresh air and painting from nature. The image below shows the left side of one of her paintings, and the left side of a printed postcard for comparison. She made quite an accurate copy! The colours are different because both she and the colourist of the printed postcard were working from black and white photos and had to make up the colours themselves.

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I'd like help in identifying the other photographs that she used as models. My collection of northern Tasmanian cards is not strong, so northern Tasmanians may be able to assist. Below are three of her paintings to match up with printed postcards made from original photographs.

Road near Cora Lyn

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Yachting on the Tamar

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Supply Creek, River Tamar

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[John Campton]

Hi Des, I can help you with the first one. It is the original bridge over the North Esk at Corra Lynn. Later postcards circa 1905 show a different structure but they show the new bridge. The view is looking south heading towards Blessington, hence it is /was known as the Blessington road. Under that bridge and to the right in the photograph is the large pool that is shown is many postcards titled "Corra Lynn" and there were many different spellings. Just below that pool and featured in postcards is "Pulpit Rock". Above and to the left of the bridge is a deep ravine and I have a postcard looking west along that ravine and stretch of the North Esk to the new bridge.

The artist must have been working off a very old painting. Caught many trout in the pools above and below that bridge while I lived in Launceston. Where the artist/photographer should have been standing there is a road to their right that leads down to the old fish hatchery and "Scout Island". It is a very popular swimming spot.

Hope this helps Kind regards JC

[John Campton]

Des,
I was having a bit of a think about the yachting scene. I believe it is Freshwater Point looking west across the Tamar. There are no homes etc in the background as the marsh on the other side was not suitable for housing at the time. The channel narrows here and it is a natural congregation point for all vessels plying to use the narrow deep channel to get back to the Launceston docks and mooring places, or alternatively sailing out of Launceston.The hills on the east Tamar are much steeper.
I say looking west because Launceston Church Grammar School is on top of the Mowbray Hill and overlooks the point. The hill drops steeply down to the Mowbray/Invermay flats which once were teatree flats. A lot of photos were taken from Freshwater point and I will see if I can find some that align with the postcard.

Regards JC

A late thought is that the dip in the hill line in the middle of the postcard is the bay that now serves as the outlet for water from Trevallyn Dam that runs through the HEC power station just before Riverside.

[MikeEpworth]

Perhaps she didn't.

My research into the personage and tradition of Jimmy Possum and his chairs has led me to Laura H Davey. Her 'Pioneer's Home' postcard from the same series above is possibly a rendition of him in his home/workshop. I am trying to establish if she visited or she possibly did not as your post suggests.

I believe the images below are observed and painted "en plein air". I also believe the buildings and the vegetation are too prominent and disproportionate, in most landscape photos of the time buildings are seem small proportionally. The ratio of foreground to the horizon to the sky is quite similar, pretty tricky to do in photos of different scenes.

[MikeEpworth]

Hi Des

I think the conclusion you make from your comparison between the 'Beauty Point' Laura H Davey work and the photographed image (Appears in Beaconsfield Museum Collection) while compelling has some issues. The scene depicted is a rest stop overlooking the dock, a scene that would have repeated itself many times a day. It would be to the photographer or painters gaze the perfect position to frame the scene and its crucial elements. By 1907 the Box Brownie was transforming photography, so the amount of images of this scene could be considerable.

I have catalogued quite a few detailed differences between the two which I will spare you the tedium of going through (having said that, I can list if of interest) While all differences are minor, to me, they add up to the scene being rendered at different times and slightly different vantages.

I have researched her life as much as is possible without going to the Geelong archives. She would have been a rare Victorian independent woman. Davey seems to have been the dutiful daughter not marrying and looking after her Cornish born parents in Geelong. She started studying at 30 in the mid 1880s after their death with a fashionable ex-London teacher recently set up in a studio in Melbourne. Her next step was to establish a painting school for young women in Geelong. When she painted this series she would have been in her early 50s. I like to imagine she visited Tasmania on one of the many ships that would have criss-crossed between the states, caught a coach and made her way staying at inns along the way painting (or doing working drawings of) these 12 images then catching a boat home.

I hope she sat in front of a tree and painted Jimmy Possum.