Note 1) The following biographical materials are taken from the Askart.com website:

“In 1925, she married Floyd Macmillan Davis, well-known illustrator, and combined painting with caring for her children, Noel and Deborah. The Davises went to Europe in 1932. While in France, Mrs. Davis visited Renoir's home and studio and studied his paintings. After touring the continent the family settled in Cannes, France, where Mrs. Davis started to paint as a creative artist. The transition was not so noticeable from day to day, but on her return to the United States in 1933, she found she had completely lost her flair for commercial work. Abandoning her former methods, she studied at the Art Students League in New York and with George Grosz for a year; then she started on her own as an artist.

Recognition came soon. She won the William R. French Gold Medal at the Chicago Institute of Art in 1937 and was recommended for the 1938 purchase prize by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at Richmond, Virginia. In 1939 she received honorable mention from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and third honorable mention from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York bought her August Afternoon in 1940. This was followed by a number of prizes in museums throughout the country, and in 1941 she gave her first one-man show at the Rehn Gallery in New York City. After two additional one-man shows at the Midtown Gallery in New York an art critic called Gladys Rockmore Davis "the ten-year wonder of United States art"…. Her work was described by a critic of the Art Digest (May 1, 1943) as that of "one of our strongest women artists, who is not so much concerned with fantasy as she is with painting a good solid, professional picture"…. Mrs. Davis was one of the artists participating in the first art show sponsored by the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1945; in the same year she won the Pepsi-Cola Portrait of America Show popular prize. She was represented in the Portraits, Inc., in 1947 of Family Life in the United States during the past hundred years with her paintings of the children of Mr. and Mrs. John P. Marquand. Some art lovers compare her portraits of children to those by Mary Cassatt, the American Impressionist painter of a previous generation. In 1951, Mrs. Davis won the Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She is a full Academician at the National Academy of Design. When Mrs. Davis visited Spain in 1952 she was stimulated, as in France, to new work, which resulted a one-man show held in April 1953, called "Paintings of Spain." One critic spoke of the "vibrant color of her brush work" and "her classic virtues applied in a contemporary way". Calling herself "a conservative modern" she wrote that her husband's "unfailing interest and flawless taste have been a continuous source of inspiration."

See Askart.com for its listing of the 14 museums which hold Davis’ works in their collections.

Note 2): See below for painting entitled “Disrobing: Portrait of H. McGill.” Signed with monogram “GRD” lower right. Oil on canvas. 30.25 in. x 25.13 in.. This painting sold for $2,938 on 9/12-13/2009, at the height of the recent recession, as lot 339 by Neale Auction Company. If the reader views this painting, he or she will recognize that the woman who sat for the Neal Auction Company portrait, is the same woman, H. McGill, who sat for the painting in the same blue robe, that is being offered at auction today.

Title/Subject: Disrobing: Portrait of H. McGill Signed by monogram. Oil on canvas. 30.25 in. x 25.13 in. sold for $2,938 on 09/12/2009 - 09/13/2009 at Neal Auction Company, Newton, NC

This painting and the relatively few other relevant Davis auction sales, warrant the conclusion that the presale estimate of $3,000-$4,000 for this Davis painting is reasonable and justifiable. See, e.g.:

Title/Subject: Noel With Violin Signed with initials. Oil on canvas. 36 in. x 24 in. sold for $4,600 on 12/12/1996 at Bonhams & Butterfields San Francisco, CA

Title/Subject: End of Summer Signed with initials. Oil on canvas. 30.5 in. x 40 in. sold for $9,775 on 03/20/1996 at Sotheby’s, NY

These two paintings, which sold in 1996, was the same year in which the above portrait of H. McGill, which sold for $2,938 in 2009 at Neale Auction Company, sold for $1,035 on 3/12/1996 at Sotheby's New York Arcade.

Title/Subject: Back View Signed with initials. Oil on canvas. 30.25 in. x 25.13 in. sold for $1,035 on 03/20/1996 at Sotheby’s, NY