Quick Facts
Biography
Jo Davidson (March 30, 1883 – January 2, 1952) was an American sculptor. Although he specialized in realistic, intense portrait busts, Davidson did not require his subjects to formally pose for him; rather, he observed and spoke with them. He worked primarily with clay, while the final products were typically cast in terra-cotta, marble and bronze.
Life and career
Davidson was born in New York City where he was educated before going to work in the atelier of Hermon Atkins MacNeil. He subsequently moved to Paris to study sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1907. After returning to the United States, he was befriended by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who purchased some of Davidson's work.
In 1911 Davidson secured his first solo gallery shows. He was one of a dozen sculptors invited by the oilman E. W. Marland to compete in his competition for a Pioneer Woman statue in Ponca City in 1927., which he failed to win. In 1934 Davidson won the National Academy of Design's Maynard Prize, and in 1947 the American Academy of Arts and Letters hosted a retrospective featuring nearly 200 of his works. In 1944, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician. In the summer of 1949, he was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Among Davidson's commissions are a design for a United States War Industries badge, a collection of pieces for the Government of France to commemorate the first victory of the Troupes de Marine, and bronze busts of the leaders of the First World War Allies. His portraits of world leaders and celebrated personalities gained him international acclaim. He did statues of E. W. Marland and his two adoptive grown children.
Commissions
- James Barrie
- Nicholas Murray Butler
- Charlie Chaplin
- Madame Chiang Kai-shek
- Joseph Conrad
- Émile Coué (who was also a sculptor in his spare time)
- Clarence Darrow
- Charles G. Dawes - bust, part of the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Albert Einstein
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Marshal Ferdinand Foch
- Anatole France
- Mahatma Gandhi
- André Gide
- Emma Goldman
- W. Averell Harriman
- Frank Harris
- Dolores Ibárruri (La Pasionaria)
- Robinson Jeffers
- James Joyce
- Helen Keller
- Rudyard Kipling
- Robert M. La Follette, Wisconsin contribution to National Statuary Hall, United States Capitol
- D. H. Lawrence
- Edward Drummond Libbey, founder of the Libbey Glass Company and the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio
- Henry Luce
- John Marin
- E. W. Marland
- Lydie Marland and her brother George Roberts Marland
- Lowell Mellett
- Andrew Mellon
- General John J. Pershing
- John D. Rockefeller
- Will Rogers (posthumous) - the original statue donated to the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital in Saranac Lake, New York
- Will Rogers (posthumous) - bronze, Oklahoma contribution to National Statuary Hall, United States Capitol, erected in 1939
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt installed at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park
- Ida Rubinstein
- Carl Sandburg
- E. W. Scripps
- George Bernard Shaw
- Lincoln Steffens
- Gertrude Stein
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Marshal Tito
- H. G. Wells
- Henry A. Wallace - bust, part of the United States Senate Vice Presidential Bust Collection
- Walt Whitman (posthumous) - full-body bronze statue in Bear Mountain State Park, New York.
- Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
- Evan Williams (Opera tenor)
- Woodrow Wilson
- Israel Zangwill
Collections
Some of Davidson's work is in the National Gallery of Art.
He also designed a statue of Henry D. Thoreau, the author of the book Walden. The statue is located at Walden Pond State Reservation in Concord, Massachusetts.
In 2006, The Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery opened a permanent exhibition, "Jo Davidson: Biographer in Bronze", showcasing fourteen Davidson works in terracotta and bronze, including portraits of Gertrude Stein and Lincoln Steffens.
Political activity
Davidson was chairman of the Independent Citizens Committee of Artists, Scientists, and Professionals (ICCASP), a leftist-liberal group that supported the policies of President Franklin Roosevelt and his re-election. In 1946 this group merged with the National Citizens Political Action Committee (NCPAC) to become the Progressive Citizens of America (PCA); Davidson became co-chairman (the other chairman being Dr. Frank Kingdon). PCA struggled during tensions of the Cold War and fought for racial equality, economic justice and civil liberties. Important segments of the PCA became the base for Henry Wallace's candidacy for U.S. President in 1948 on the Progressive Party ticket.