Bessie Ellen Davidson (1879–1965)

'... she applied the paint with an extraordinary little knife out of a manicure set ... placing patches of colour, thickly, with enormous consideration, warm against cold, building up the image very slowly and carefully, a sort of variation of the pointillist system, only much less rigid...' (Mary Whinney, letter to A. Ribadeau Dumas, 27 Nov. 1992, quoted in P. Little, A studio in Montparnasse, Bessie Davidson: An Australian Artist in Paris, Melbourne, 2003, p.103).