Antique Scottish Oil on Canvas Portrait. Depicts a balding man with a flowing white beard in profile. Faded art suppliers mark on back identifies the origin as G. Davidson in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Overall Size: 19 1/4 x 17 1/4 in. 

Sight Size: 13 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. 

#4287 

George Davidson (1843-1901) was the son of James Davidson, a spirit merchant. He married Mary Wilson, daughter of the carver and gilder John Wilson, in 1868 in Calton, Glasgow. He opened for business two years later, and was recognized early on for his high quality art supplies, acting as the sole agent for Dr. Schoenfeld of Dusseldorf, a highly-sought after colormaker. He appears in the 1872 directory as a carver and gilder, and in 1877 also as an artists’ colourman. His first premises, 42 Sauchiehall St, had previously been occupied by another colourman, James Miller, and Davidson moved to a much larger space at 123 Sauchiehall Street in 1879, where the company remained for almost 40 years. The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours was close by at No. 127, which likely contributed to their thriving business. From 1896 onward the company also offered to clean and restore old portraits and landscapes. The space routinely held not just supplies but a significant rotating exhibition of works by local artists, especially etchings, engraving, watercolors, and oil paintings, and at the height of its success there were 20 full-time employees and roughly three dozen student and master painters using the space to exhibit or to sketch and paint from models. Following Davidson’s death in 1901 his business as art dealer, carver, gilder, plane maker and artists’ colourman was continued by George Stenhouse Davidson, becoming George Davidson Ltd in 1907, with various shareholders. The Fine Art Saloon, as the space had become known to local artists and patrons, closed permanently in 1917, due in no small part to World War I, both in the ability to obtain supplies and the dissolution of their relationship with Germany.