Louis Davis

Louis Davis (May 1860-1941) was an English watercolourist, book illustrator and stained-glass artist.

Davis was the son of Gabriel Davis, merchant and manufacturer of East St Helen Street, Abingdon, where Louis was born. Davis was educated at Abingdon School and may have received initial training from Edward Burne-Jones. He then became one of the earliest pupils of Christopher Whall at his studio in Dorking, and was a central member of Whall's coterie of glass artists. Davis later maintained his own studio and home at Ewelme Cottage, Pinner.

tained-glass work

Among his more important work, in a distinctive Arts' and Crafts' style, was his scheme for glazing the choir windows at Dunblane Abbey (1913); several windows in the chapel of the Order of the Thistle at St Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh; glasswork at Colmonell Church in Ayrshire; Paisley Abbey; Wemyss Castle; St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin; Welbeck Abbey; Wynyard Park, County Durham and Woburn Abbey. In southern England examples of Davis's work can be found at Littlemore Church, Oxford (1900); Cheltenham College Chapel (1924); Abingdon School Chapel (1924, inserted 1952); Barton Hartshorn Church near Bicester; Foxley Church, Wiltshire (1901); Rockbeare Church, Devon (1928); Stoke Poges Church, Buckinghamshire (1899); St Silas's Church, Kentish Town, London (1900) and at Pinner (1900) and Hatch End Churches (1903-1932) in Middlesex.

References

*Louis Davis, 1860-1941 [http://www.abingdon.co.uk under Louis Davis]
*Louis Davis, 1860-1941, by Nigel Hammond, Oxfordshire Local History Journal, January 2006.