M DOVASTON - ARTIST

I have many enquiries each year about M DOVASTON, the artist - so here's what you're looking for! But please don't ask me for valuations - I'm a family historian and know very little about art!	The Landlord's Birthday
Dear Mother and Dad (With thanks to Steven Hulse)	Margaret Isabel DOVASTON was born on 3rd March 1884 in Battersea, Middlesex, the eldest child and only daughter of Adolphus DOVASTON and Amy Isabel HAY. She had 3 brothers, John, born 1886 and Geoffrey & Walter, twins born in 1896. Her father was an architect.
In 1891 the family were living at Sunnyside Road, Ealing, Middlesex and by 1901 Margaret was studying at the Ealing Art School. She went on to study at South Kensington under C W Cope and J Watson Nichol and then at the Royal Academy School where she spent five years under various teachers. Here she won numerous awards for her drawing and composition and earned herself a glowing reputation.	Now for the Rigging
Tea at the Vicarage	Margaret was a highly accomplished artist who was awarded the British Institution Scholarship and elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1905. She exhibited in Suffolk Street from 1908 to 1913 and was also a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and other galleries, including the Walker Gallery in Liverpool.
During World War I she became a respected war artist, and in 1915 produced a watercolour of CSM Reid leading reserve troops across the crater-strewn ground of Hill 60 to the front line, with shells exploding all round them. The picture was painted at night. It has been bought by the Queen's Royal Surrey Regimental Association for permanent display in the regimental museum at Clandon Park, Guildford.	Planning the Journey
Click on the book cover to see Margaret's contributions	Margaret was also asked to contribute to 'Deeds That Thrill the Empire', subtitled 'True Stories of the Most Glorious Acts of Heroism of the Empire's Soldiers and Sailors during the Great War'. This work was published in instalments by the Standard Art Book Co Ltd and describes some of the most thrilling deeds of the British Empire forces during the First World War. Most of the illustrations are in black and white and are highly dramatic. The majority were produced especially for this work by several different artists.
She lived most of her life in London but liked to visit the family home, The Nursery, in Twyford, Shropshire where she enjoyed driving a tractor round the grounds whilst chain-smoking cigarettes. She never married and died in 1954 in Lambeth, Surrey.	Searching the Deed
	Margaret is most well-known for her oil paintings of old English interior and historical scenes and possessed a remarkable collection of period costumes and furniture which appear in her works.
Her paintings were created purely from imagination, but this was no doubt assisted by her collection of 17th, 18th and 19th Century Costumes and Antiques. She said of her paintings, 'They tell a story in which the spectator is invited to fill in the details at will'.	Skipper's Birthday
After Dinner Discourse	She is still highly regarded as a genre artist and her popularity is intensifying in today's market. Recent sales of her original work have reached in excess of Ł55,000.
In the mid 1900s there was such a demand for her work that many of her paintings were reproduced as prints. Some were over laquered to give the impression of brushstrokes. These prints can be seen in a wide range of public places - and my living room! The most I have paid for one of these is Ł10!	The Toast
Recording the Weight	At this time it was the fashion for various furniture outlets to give framed prints to those buying whole dining room or living room suites as a 'free gift' and copies of Margaret's works were often chosen. Hence the reason that so many are still to be found today.

They were also reproduced on a range of other items such as jigsaw puzzles, tin lids, screens, fireplace covers, cigar boxes, etc.

		The New Member

More of Margaret's Painting

Home Page Email