John Scarlett Davis
John Scarlett Davis (1 September 1804 – 29 September 1845), or Davies, was an English landscape, portrait and architectural painter, and lithographer.
Also recorded as John Scarlett Davies
John Scarlett Davis

John Scarlett Davis · Art UK · Public domain
- Name
- John Scarlett Davis
- Born
- 1 September 1804
- Birthplace
- 3, High Street, Leominster, England
- Died
- 29 September 1845
- Place of death
- 11, Bedford Street, Bedford Square, London, England
- Occupation
- painter
- Known for
- Landscape, portrait and architectural paintings
- Nationality
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland · United Kingdom
- Fields
- painting
- Education
- Royal Academy of Arts
- Languages
- English
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John Scarlett Davis (1 September 1804 – 29 September 1845), or Davies, was an English landscape, portrait and architectural painter, and lithographer.
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wikidata · Q6256854 · wikipedia · John Scarlett Davis
In this article
Biography
Biography
John Scarlett Davis studied at Royal Academy of Arts. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait and landscape. Work by John Scarlett Davis is recorded in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, Tate, British Museum, Yale Center for British Art and National Gallery.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — John Scarlett Davis • Born — 1 September 1804 • Birthplace — 3, High Street, Leominster, England • Died — 29 September 1845 • Place of death — 11, Bedford Street, Bedford Square, London, England • Occupation — painter • Known for — Landscape, portrait and architectural paintings
Life and work
Life and work
• Illustration — The Spaniards - Hampstead Heath, c. 1844 possibly his last work Davis was born in Leominster (the building, 2 High Street, survives), the second of five children of James Davis, a silversmith and watchmaker. Scarlett was his mother's maiden name; she was a distant relation of James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger. At the age of eleven, Davis won an award from the local society for the encouragement of the arts. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London, and began exhibiting his works at the annual Royal Academy shows in 1825 (with the painting "My Den"). He last exhibited in London in 1844. He was influenced by the work of his contemporary, Richard Parkes Bonington. Davis painted portraits, landscapes, and church interiors, and developed a distinctive speciality in painting the interiors of art galleries. His picture The Interior of the British Institution Gallery (1829) records a collection of Old Masters. He lithographed and published twelve heads from studies by Rubens, and in 1832 some views of Bolton Abbey, drawn from nature on stone. His watercolor of the collection of Benjamin Godfrey Windus (1835) shows the Turner pictures on the walls. (John Ruskin studied those Turners while writing his Modern Painters.) Davis painted the interiors of the Louvre as well. Between 1842 and 1845 he was commissioned to draw copies of the paintings in the collections of the British royal palaces. Davis painted scenes on the Continent during his travels there. In 1831 he had a commission from Lord Farnborough to paint an interior of the Vatican and of the Escorial. He was in Florence in 1834, where he painted the interior of the Uffizi Gallery, and in Amsterdam in 1841 (sending the picture "Jack after a successful cruise, visiting his old comrades at Greenwich"). He died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 29 September 1845, at his London home, 11, Bedford Street, in Bedford Square and was buried at All Souls, Kensal Green. He was 41 years old. He is commemorated by a blue plaque, erected in September 2002, on his birthplace in Leominster. His works are in a number of public and private collections, with several in each of the National Museum Cardiff, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, Leominster Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Yale Center for British Art. A major exhibition of his work was held at Hereford in 1937. A number of his letters are held by Herefordshire Libraries and Information Service.
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.
Origins and background
Origins and background
The following is established of origins and background. Davis died in 1845 at Bedford Square. It is also recorded that john Scarlett Davis was born in 1804 at Leominster.
Works and production
Works and production
The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count.
Places
Named by the record
Places
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Leominster.
Birth place
Bedford Square.
Death place
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
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Studied at
1- Royal Academy of ArtsOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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