Beacon Hill and Olympics

Beacon Hill and Olympics, n.d. Oil painting by Nora Georgina Drummond-Davies (1862-1949)

Beacon Hill and Olympics, n.d. Oil painting by Nora Georgina Drummond-Davies (1862-1949)

Name/Title

Beacon Hill and Olympics

Entry/Object ID

2014.08.03

Description

Painting This landscape depicts bright Scotch Broom shrubbery framing a view to the ocean and distant mountains from Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park. Officially opened in 1882, the 200-acre park is one of downtown Victoria’s crown jewels and provides scenic vistas of the Salish Sea and the Olympic Mountains of Washington state in the U.S.

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil on board

Subject Place

Region

Pacific Northwest

Continent

North America

Context

The name 'Beacon Hill' is derived from a hill upon which once stood navigational beacons to aid to mariners approaching Victoria’s inner harbour. The hill is culturally significant, having been a burial site for the Coast Salish people, the original inhabitants of the region. The Olympic Mountains were originally called "Sun-a-do" by the Duwamish Indians; however, when the English explorer John Meares saw them in 1788, he thought he would honor the Greek explorer Juan de Fuca by naming the mountains after the mythical home of Greek Gods which is "Mount Olympus" in Greece. Juan de Fuca was a Greek navigator who sailed for Spain under a Spanish name. He is best known for his claim to have explored the Strait of Anián, known as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, now included in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula in northwestern Washington state.

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Nora Georgina Drummond-Davies (1862-1949)

Role

Painter

Date made

n.d.

Time Period

20th Century

Notes

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Born in Bath, Somerset, England Nora Drummond-Davies was an English, later Canadian artist and illustrator. She was the second child in a large family of 14 children, a member of an artistic family of painters, teachers and tutors. Her father was Master of the Bath School of Art and Design and an art tutor to the Royal Family. She immigrated to Alberta around 1900, where she provided private art lessons to Peter Whyte (1905-1966), whose paintings and collections and those of his wife Catharine Robb Whyte, OC (1906-1979), later formed the basis for the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff. Drummond-Davies worked in oil, gouache, and watercolour, painting in a representational, naturalist style. Her subject matter included portraits, genre, daily life, First Nations and landscapes. Much of her illustration work, often featuring dogs and country pursuits, was produced for Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd., a British publishing company, with interests in the United States and Canada, well known before World War II for its art postcards. She later moved to Victoria B.C, where she was a member of the Island Arts and Crafts Society and the Victoria Sketch Club. She exhibited with the Island Arts and Crafts Society from 1925 to 1932 and at the Vancouver Art Gallery in the 1933 Vancouver Island Exhibition.

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Signature

Location

Signed lower right: N Drummond

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Visible image

Height

43.2 cm

Width

71.1 cm

Acquisition

Acquisition Method

Purchase

Date

Jul 29, 2014

Notes

Lunds Lot #72

Relationships

Related Entries

Notes

By Nora Georgina Drummond-Davies: 2014.08.03 Beacon Hill and Olympics 2016.05.01 Forest Glade 2017.02.12 Mountain Lion 2018.08.19 Forest View to Mountains ______________________________________ 2014.07.03 Beacon Hill Park (MIA) 2014.08.03 Beacon Hill and Olympics 2017.05.09 Beacon Hill Park 2018.08.17 Beacon Hill Park 2024.10.01 Olympic Mountains Through Beacon Hill Park