Painting

The architectural partnership was founded in 1900 by Charles Frédéric Mewès (1860- 1914) and Arthur Joseph Davis (1878-1951). Both studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became famous for their skillful reinterpretation of 18th-century styles.

They built a large practice working for rich financiers and industrialists both in France and Britain. They remodelled Luton Hoo for the diamond magnate Julius Wernher, and one of their most celebrated commission was the Ritz Hotel (1903-6) in London, the first steel-framed building in the city designed with a Parisian exterior and mansard roof, and interiors in the Louis XVI style.