De
Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar (12 February 1878 – 24 November 1959)
ARTIST & SUFFRAGETT
Historical Note from The Glasgow School of Art:
De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar (1878–1959), metalwork designer, was born on 12 February 1878 in Kandy, Ceylon, the daughter of a tea planter, John Lewthwaite Dewar, and his wife, Amelia Cochran. Her unusual first name had been passed down through several generations in her family, by whom she was known as Kooroovi, the Tamil word for a small bird. She was one of three surviving daughters of the family. From 1891 until 1908 or 1909 she studied part time at the Glasgow School of Art. Her enamel and metalwork, which included jewelry, clock surrounds, mirror surrounds, plaques, caskets, buttons, and sconces, was frequently illustrated in The Studio. She also painted, engraved, and produced designs for bookplates, calendars, tearoom menus, and cards, as well as costumes for masques. For thirty-eight years Dewar taught design in the metalwork department of the school, during some of that period with Peter Wylie Davidson, in whose Applied Design in the Precious Metals (1929) her Presentation Casket (c.1910; Glasgow Society of Women Artists, on loan to Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries) is illustrated.
She was president of the Society of Lady Artists' Club, whose history she wrote (privately printed, 1950). Her sketchbooks of c.1895–1910 (priv. coll.), letters, and journals provide ‘a rare account of a woman designer of the Glasgow Style era’ (ibid.). Dewar was involved with the women's suffrage movement, for whom she designed bookplates, programmes, and calendars. She compiled files on women artists for the National Council of Women in London providing biographical information and reproductions of works. She did not marry and lived with her sister, Katharine, at 15 Woodside Terrace, Glasgow, until her death there on 24 November 1959.
Some of her decorative metalwork pieces were used for illustration in Applied Design in Precious Metals, a publication by her colleague Peter Wylie Davidson. Her enamel work was exhibited at the Scottish Section of the Prima Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna in Turin in 1902.
Dewar was involved with the women's suffrage movement. She designed a banner in 1911 for use at the coronation of George V in London for a fee of 30 shillings. This banner, stating 'Let Glasgow Flourish' is now held at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre in Glasgow.[7] [8]
She wrote the History of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artist's Club, published in 1950.[10] While writing this she was the President of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists, now known as the Glasgow Society of Women Artists.[2]