Sophia Davenport

We welcome Robert and Mary Davenport with their beautiful botanical cards, prints and notebooks to our fairs.

It all began in 2020 with an old cardboard box of original watercolour paintings spread out on the kitchen table by Robert, Mary and Lucinda Davenport.  These delicate floral images were all painted by their ancestor Sophia. ​ ​Sophia Walker was born in Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire in 1818 and married John Davenport in 1839; together they had seven children, John, Thomas, Susannah, Edward, Francis, Alfred, and Arthur. In the present generation, Lucinda is Thomas’ great-great-grand-daughter and the first girl to be born into the family for over 100 years. ​ Sophia’s interest in floral subjects was encouraged by her father Richard, an amateur botanist and Fellow of Magdalen College, who researched and published The Flora of Oxfordshire in 1833. She also studied with the renowned watercolour artist William Turner (known as The Oxford Turner, to distinguish him from his famous contemporary, J. M. W. Turner).  Turner inspired many of her own landscape paintings and they painted several similar views in and around the city.

Over two hundred years after she was born, Sophia’s passion and lifetime of dedication to her art has been the inspiration for this family business, bringing her floral watercolours to life with greeting cards, art prints, and notebooks.

Contact Robert and Mary at Sophia Davenport

Website: www.sophiadavenport.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sophiaanndavenport

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sophiadavenportwatercolours/