Jeremiah Davison was born in England in about 1695, of Scottish parentage. Nothing is known of his education or artistic training, but he is known to have copied works by Van Dyck and Lely in the Royal Collection. Davison became acquainted at meetings of a masonic lodge with James, 2nd Duke of Atholl, whose portrait he painted and who took him to Scotland, recommending him widely. Davison worked in Edinburgh from about 1737 to 1740, painting the Scottish aristocracy, and maintained an equally prosperous practice after his return to London. He shared with Hudson, Ramsay, and Vanderbank the services of the drapery painter, Joseph Van Aken. Davison died at his house in Leicester Fields, London, in December 1745.
[Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 53.]
Artist Bibliography
1929
Vertue, George. "The Note Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England." Walpole Society 22 (1933-1934): 129.
1975
Irwin, David and Francina. Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad 1700-1900. London, 1975: 47-49, 54, 65.
1992
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 53.