Sylvia Davis born in Orange, New South Wales was an outstanding student at the Royal Academy of Fine Art at the age of 15. Sylvia had three years of continuing study with Australia's foremost landscape painter, W. Lister Lister and the continent's ranking portrait painter, H.A. Hanke who won Australia's coveted annual Archibald prize. At twenty, Sylvia accompanied her father, Leslie James Davis, on a gold-mining expedition to Guadalcanal. After completing eighty canvases in ten months of the uncivilized Solomon Island natives and surrounding landscapes in the heart of the jungle eighteen months before WWII, she quickly became a celebrity in the public eye.
Recognizing that this accomplishment represented a unique, historic visual record by one of Australia's leading young artists, Lady Gowrie, wife of the Governor General of Australia consented to act as a patron for an exhibition at Anthony Hordern's Art Gallery in Sydney. This was the first time in fifteen years that Her Excellency had agreed to acknowledge her support for an artist. Among the sale of a number of the paintings was an Australian landscape that was chosen to hang in Windsor Castle.
Sylvia Davis-Patricelli arrived in the United States at twenty-three as an American war bride and continued to produce many commissioned portraits of notable members of the New England community. Her much heralded success in both Australia and in the U.S. resulted in a subsequent second exhibition of her work opened by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1951 at G. Fox & Company, Hartford, Connecticut. The exhibition was sponsored by G. Fox & Co., WTIC and the Wadsworth Athenaeum. (Photo below)
She was a member and teacher at the West Hartford Art League for many years and won several First Place awards from the Connecticut Women Painters for her portraits.
A lifetime of achievement that includes several other unmatched collections (America's Cup, U.S. Golf Tour, Val-Kill at Hyde Park, still lifes and commanding, life-size portraits of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and General Douglas Mac Arthur) remain currently as a private family collection for which selected pieces are available for loan or purchase.
Recognizing that this accomplishment represented a unique, historic visual record by one of Australia's leading young artists, Lady Gowrie, wife of the Governor General of Australia consented to act as a patron for an exhibition at Anthony Hordern's Art Gallery in Sydney. This was the first time in fifteen years that Her Excellency had agreed to acknowledge her support for an artist. Among the sale of a number of the paintings was an Australian landscape that was chosen to hang in Windsor Castle.
Sylvia Davis-Patricelli arrived in the United States at twenty-three as an American war bride and continued to produce many commissioned portraits of notable members of the New England community. Her much heralded success in both Australia and in the U.S. resulted in a subsequent second exhibition of her work opened by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1951 at G. Fox & Company, Hartford, Connecticut. The exhibition was sponsored by G. Fox & Co., WTIC and the Wadsworth Athenaeum. (Photo below)
She was a member and teacher at the West Hartford Art League for many years and won several First Place awards from the Connecticut Women Painters for her portraits.
A lifetime of achievement that includes several other unmatched collections (America's Cup, U.S. Golf Tour, Val-Kill at Hyde Park, still lifes and commanding, life-size portraits of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and General Douglas Mac Arthur) remain currently as a private family collection for which selected pieces are available for loan or purchase.
Hear Mrs. Roosevelt's Original Speech
Collection: National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Gift of Danina Anderson, daughter of Max Dupain 2018
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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Sylvia's daughter, Susan, hands a bouquet to Mrs. Roosevelt.
Click to read the full piece.
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Sylvia Davis, Mrs. Roosevelt and Beatrice Fox Auerbach, President of G. Fox & Co. with a Solomon Island child's portrait.
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