Encore! - Guinness (c.1958)
Year: Undated (c.1950s)
Format: Beermat
Illustrator: Victoria Davidson (1915-1999)
Client: Guinness
Details: This Guinness beermat features a version of a design also found on a c.1958 poster. The artwork is signed ‘Victoria’ - an artist also known as Victoria Davidson (1915-1999).
Victoria Davidson was born Lilli Ursula Barbara Commichau in Munich, Germany. When an accident ended her ambitions to be a ballet dancer, she returned to her childhood love of drawing. She went to Berlin in 1929 and won a scholarship to study fashion. She went on to combine her studies with Life Drawing, Graphic Design and History of Costume.
Lilli met her future husband, Eric Victor, and changed her name to Victoria as friends called the couple Victor and Victoria. She worked as a layout artist at a fashion magazine after graduating, while building a reputation for her freelance illustration work.
The rise of the Nazis in Germany made life difficult for Victoria and Eric, who was Jewish. After Victoria’s freelance work was abruptly terminated, the couple left for London in 1935 and married. They later separated and she married her second husband, Dr Hans Davidson, in 1947.
Victoria became a British citizen and began freelancing in London, contributing illustrations to the magazines Picture Post and Lilliput for nearly twenty years. She illustrated for many publications including the Radio Times, Tatler, the Illustrated London News and the Sunday Mirror. She also created artwork for advertising, for companies including London Transport and the GPO. Further to this, she wrote and illustrated several children’s books.
Victoria became an antiques dealer, opening a shop in Islington. The shop eventually took over from her drawing. Victoria left London after the death of her husband in 1980, opening an antiques showroom in Suffolk. In spite of later health issues, she remained creative to the end, writing and illustrating poems and humorous books for her friends and relatives.