Mary Dawson Elwell (1874-1952)

Mary Dawson Elwell (1874-1952). Painter, notably of interiors, also landscapes, born in Liverpool, daughter of a shipping merchant. She married Hull oil broker George Alfred Holmes, twice her age, who died in 1913. She then married the painter Fred Elwell, long standing family friend and with whom she studied, in 1914. His portrait of his wife is held by the Borough Council in Beverley, Yorkshire, where they settled. Her money enabled the Elwells to travel extensively on the continent. She exhibited extensively at the RA, also at SWA, RSA, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and elsewhere, although a stroke in 1945 incapacitated her. There was a retrospective of the work of the two Elwells in 1953 at Beverley Art Gallery and Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.