Ivy de Verley

Flossie Ivy Louise Verley was born on 27 July 1879 in Kingston in the British Colony of Jamaica to Eliza Jane (née Lazerous) and Louis Francis Verley.{{Cite book|editor-last1=Falk|editor-first1=Peter Hastings|title=Who Was Who in American Art, 1564–1975|volume=1|year=1999|publisher=Sound View Press|isbn=0-932087-55-8|oclc=42517882|page=902}}{{cite news|date=7 June 1907|title=Estate Richard Walter Bradley|page=11|work=The Gleaner|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/obituary-clipping-jun-07-1907-2843648/|via=Newspaper Archive}}{{cite web |title=Kingston Parish birth registers, 1878-1881: Flossie Ivy Louise Verley |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-YS89-MV96?i=3740&cc=1538386 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=Registrar General's Department |access-date=28 November 2021 |location=Spanish Town, Jamaica |page=174 |date=27 July 1879 |id=microfilm #004492565}}{{subscription required}} She was raised in England and France.{{Cite news|url=http://archive.org/details/ccarm_002011|title=People Talked About|date=1934-04-13|work=Carmel Pine Cone|page=9|language=English|via=Internet Archive}}

After her first husband died in 1907, De Verley moved to England, where she studied painting and opened the Scarab Studio at Courtfield Gardens in South Kensington, London.{{cite news|title=Made a Great Reputation as a Painter|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-jan-27-1922-2843293/|date=27 January 1922|work=The Gleaner|page=3|via=Newspaper Archive}}{{cite news|title=Ivy de Verley, the Noted Portrait Painter, Is Coming to Coronado|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-sep-04-1920-2843342/|date=4 September 1920|work=Coronado Eagle and Journal|via=Newspaper Archive|page=1}} She moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, in 1920 or 1921 and opened a Scarab Studio there as well.

De Verley painted living people in a style inspired by death masks.{{cite news|date=9 January 1939|title=The Art of Ivy de Verley: Jamaican Winning High Praise in Hollywood|pages=[https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jan-09-1939-2838255/ 31], [https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jan-09-1939-2838281/ 45]|work=The Gleaner|via=Newspaper Archive}} According to de Verley, she developed the style after her husband, Vesey O'Davoren, asked her to create his death mask after he was given little time to live following exposure to poison gas in World War I.

A 1915 review of an exhibit featuring her work described her paintings as "wildly romantic portraits in oil and pastel".{{cite news|last=Marriott|first=Charles|title=The Doré Galleries|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-jun-01-1915-2843276/|date=1 June 1915|work=The Gleaner|page=2|via=Newspaper Archive}} Raymond Blathwayt, a journalist,{{Cite book|last=Gibbs|first=A. M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=45muCwAAQBAJ|title=Shaw|date=1990-06-14|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-349-05402-2|language=en|page=400}} described de Verley's life masks as "striking and at times even weird in the extreme". De Verley's subjects included Elinor Glyn, Betty Blythe, and Casson Ferguson.{{cite journal|last1=Gassaway|first1=Gordon|date=April 1923|title=Being Bohemian in Hollywood|journal=Picture Play|volume=18|issue=2|pages=31–33, 97}} Her paintings are in the collection of the National Library of New Zealand,{{cite web |title=De Verley, Ivy, 1879-1963 : (Portrait of Nola Luxford. 1924 or 1927) |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23189449?search%5Bi%5D%5Bname_authority_id%5D=-96951&search%5Bpath%5D=items |publisher=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=27 November 2021}} and the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London.{{cite book |last1=Witt Library |title=A Checklist of Painters, C1200-1994 Represented in the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London |date=1995 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781884964374 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uwp8_95mdPcC |access-date=27 November 2021}}

File:Vesey O'Davoren by Ivy de Versley - life mask - The Sun and New York Herald - 9 May 1920 (cropped).jpg|Vesey Davoren, 1920

File:Casson Ferguson - Life mask by Ivy de Verley - 1923-04.png|Casson Ferguson, 1923

File:Elinor Glyn - Life mask by Ivy de Verley - 1923-04.png|Elinor Glyn, 1923

File:Ivy_de_Verley_1916.jpg

De Verley married Richard Walter Bradley on 15 November 1905 in Kingston;{{cite news|date=16 November 1905|title=A Brilliant Wedding|page=10|work=The Gleaner|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/marriage-clipping-nov-16-1905-2843890/|via=Newspaper Archive}} Bradley died on 14 January in the 1907 Kingston earthquake.

De Verley married Vesey Alfred Davoren on 15 January 1916.{{Cite news|date=26 January 1916|title=Mrs. Vesey Davoren|page=26|work=The Tatler|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001852/19160126/025/0026}} As of January 1939, de Verley had lived in Los Angeles, California, for 30 years. She died in Hollywood on 29 December 1963 and her ashes were interred on 31 December at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery.{{cite web|date=31 December 1963|title=Certificate of Death: Ivy de Verley O'Davoren|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9SX-3WCW?i=1145&cc=2001287&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQLRN-7P1W|access-date=28 November 2021|website=FamilySearch|publisher=California State Archives|location=Sacramento, California|id=Certificate #7053-26617}}{{subscription required}}

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Category:1879 births

Category:1963 deaths

Category:20th-century American women artists

Category:20th-century British women artists

Category:Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom

Category:British emigrants to the United States

Category:Jamaican women artists

Category:Burials at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery