Name/Title
Mountain LionEntry/Object ID
2017.02.12Description
Painting
This image portrays a powerful crouching mountain lion in its natural environment, a rocky mountain range, with deer grazing in a meadow below. The lion is shown in hunting mode on higher terrain - motionless, low to the ground, and fully focused on possible prey out of sight below. The strong diagonal created by the fallen tree, the rocky outcrop and the lion's body profile creates an anticipatory tension in the hunt. The location is likely British Columbia.Artwork Details
Medium
Oil on boardSubject Place
Region
Pacific NorthwestContinent
North AmericaContext
Mountain lions (Puma concolor), are known by many names, including cougar, puma, catamount, panther, and more. With the exception of humans, the mountain lion has the largest range of any land mammal in the Western hemisphere, currently from the Yukon/northern B.C. down to Argentina. The worldwide mountain lion population is currently deemed fairly secure; however, they are critically endangered in California. Of note, Vancouver island (31,285 sq. km) with an estimated 900 mountain lions, has the highest concentration of these lions in the world.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Nora Georgina Drummond-Davies (1862-1949)Role
PainterDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
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 ca.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
SignatureLocation
Signed lower left: N. DrummondDimensions
Dimension Description
Visible imageHeight
22.9 cmWidth
36.8 cmAcquisition
Acquisition Method
PurchaseDate
Apr 19, 2016Notes
Lunds Lot # 271Relationships
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
