Nora Drummond also known as Nora Drummond-Davis, was an English, and later Canadian, artist and illustrator, whose work typically featured dogs and country pursuits.

Life

Nora Georgina Drummond was born in Bath, Somerset, England in 1862, the second of fourteen children of John Joseph Drummond (1832/3-1898) and Elizabeth Hardy (b. 1840). She was a member of an artistic family, her father being a former Master of the Bath School of Art and Design

Bath School of Art and Design

Bath School of Art and Design is an art college in Bath, England. It forms part of the Bath Spa University whose main campus is located a few miles from the City at Newton Park, near Corston, Somerset.-History:...

 and an art tutor to the Royal Family, and her mother the daughter of the artist James Hardy (1801-1879). Her maternal uncle, James Hardy junior (1832-1889) was a painter of rustic landscapes and hunting scenes, who exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 and the British Institution

British Institution

The British Institution was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it was also known as the Pall Mall Picture Galleries or the British Gallery...

. Another uncle, Hayward (or Heywood) Hardy (1842-1933) was also an artist, specialising in animals and landscapes. Her great-uncle George Frederick Hardy (b. 1796) was a court musician to King William IV

William IV

William IV may refer to:* William IV of the United Kingdom * William IV, Duke of Aquitaine * William IV of Provence * William, Margrave of Meissen , also William IV of Weimar* William IV, Count of Toulouse William IV may refer to:* William IV of the United Kingdom (1765–1837)* William IV, Duke of...

 and Queen Victoria and two of his sons, George Hardy

George Hardy

George Hardy was an English genre painter, a member of the Cranbrook Colony and eldest brother to Frederick Daniel Hardy.Hardy was born in Brighton in Sussex the first son of George Hardy , a musician to George IV, Queen Adelaide, and Queen Victoria in the Royal household at Windsor. His mother...

 (1822-1909) and Frederick Daniel Hardy

Frederick Daniel Hardy

Frederick Daniel Hardy was an English genre painter and member of the Cranbrook Colony.-Life:Hardy was born in Windsor in Berkshire, one of six children of George Hardy , a musician to George IV, Queen Adelaide and Queen Victoria in the Royal household at Windsor...

 (1827-1911) were artists and members of the Cranbrook Colony

Cranbrook Colony

The Cranbrook Colony was a group of artists who settled in Cranbrook, Kent from 1854 onwards and were inspired by seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish painters...

.
In 1893 Drummond married Daniel Joseph F. Davies (1870-1948) and shortly after the turn of the century the couple emigrated to Canada, where at least three of Drummond’s siblings joined them. For some years they lived in Alberta, where Nora Drummond-Davies, as she had become known, provided private lessons in painting and illustration to Peter Whyte, who later, with his wife, (see Peter and Catharine Whyte

Peter and Catharine Whyte

Peter and Catharine Whyte were twentieth century Canadian artists from Banff, Alberta known for their landscape paintings of the Canadian Rockies. Their paintings and extensive collection of regional artifacts formed the genesis of what would later become the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies...

) became the inspiration for The Whyte Museum

Whyte Museum

The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies is located in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The museum collects, preserves, exhibits, and makes available for research and education materials related to the cultural heritage of the Rocky Mountains of Canada and other mountains around the world...

 of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, Alberta

Banff, Alberta

Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise....

.

Works

Although Drummond was working as an artist prior to the end of the 19th century, (she is described as such in the 1891 and 1901 censuses), the aspect of her work most widely encountered comprises the illustrations, often featuring dogs and country pursuits, she produced for Raphael Tuck & Sons

Raphael Tuck & Sons

In a little shop in Bishopsgate over a century ago, began a business that would have an artistic effect on most of the civilized world. Raphael Tuck and his wife Ernestine worked together in their little shop that opened in October 1866 on Union Street in London, and the influence of that event was...

Ltd., a British publishing company with interests in the USA and Canda, well known before World War II for its extensive range of art postcards. Her younger sister, Eileen Drummond (b. 1884) also provided illustrations for Tuck postcards.

After her marriage she continued to sign her work “N. Drummond”.