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Jo Davidson’s “Plastic History,” Featuring His Village Friends

This is one in a series of posts marking the 50th anniversary of the designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District.  Check out our year-long activities and celebrations at gvshp.org/GVHD50

Jo Davidson may not be a household name, but his work is familiar to many New Yorkers.  Born on March 30, 1883, Jo Davidson grew up on the Lower East Side, his parents having immigrated to New York after fleeing the Russian pogroms. They started their son on the path to a medical career, but by his teenage years Davidson already demonstrated an interest in art. He studied drawing at the Educational Alliance art school and the Art Students’ League, both institutions that trained some of the most successful artists of the 20th century.  And like many of the great artists of the 20th century, he made a home for himself in Greenwich Village.

Jo Davidson among his busts of eight world leaders. Image via www.ophirgallery.com.

Starting Out

At age 18, Davidson’s parents sent him to Yale University, still hoping he would get his degree in medicine. But the director of Yale’s art school saw his work and was so impressed that he offered free classes to the young artist. Davidson then left Yale in 1903, returning to New York to continue his studies at the Art Students’ League.

Davidson’s ca. 1916 portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Image via National Portrait Gallery (npg.si.edu).

Just a few years later, Davidson started to flourish. He sold a piece to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, marking his debut in the city’s major art scene. Davidson also went to Paris in 1907 to study for three weeks at the École des Beaux-Arts and met Gertrude Stein. Both Gertrudes surely helped connect Davidson with the Village’s great thinkers and creators of the day.

Drawing of Isadora Duncan by Davidson. Image via Flickr.

 

A Friendly Practice

Davidson’s early work focused mainly on nude figures in elegant, dynamic poses, conveying a great understanding of movement and expression in the body. From his extensive artistic training and frequent travels, Davidson’s style is described as primarily “traditional, formed on that of nineteenth-century French sculptors” but, as a bohemian, a bit more experimental than the masters.

Though these nudes helped begin his rise to fame, he made his most lasting mark with his countless portraits of international writers, politicians, businessmen, and more. He gained a wonderful reputation with his “plastic history” collection, befriending his famous subjects before/while sculpting them. Davidson rejected long, quiet sittings with his subjects. Instead, the artist and sitter would engage in friendly conversation. He explained, “I never had them pose but we just talked about everything in the world…Sometimes [they] talked as if I was their confessor. As they talked I got an immediate insight.” Because of this approach, his sculptures indeed have a very living quality to them. The faces almost appear ready to talk, with furrowed brows and soul in their eyes.

A young Charlie Chaplin with Jo Davidson, ca. 1925. Image via Voxsartoria.

In the Village

After World War I, Davidson further immersed himself in the Village art scene by establishing his studio at 23 MacDougal Alley (now No. 12) in the Greenwich Village Historic District, with the help of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, whose own studio was also nearby on the alley. Whitney actively supported Davidson’s career, purchasing, commissioning, and including his work in many exhibitions.

Gertrude Stein sitting for her sculpture. Image via getty.edu.

Davidson’s list of subjects is a bit of a who’s who of great Villagers. His portraits include Fiorello La Guardia, Walt Whitman, Emma Goldman, Helen Keller, and, of course, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, among others. A number of his works remain in the Whitney’s collections and in public spaces around New York. Perhaps most familiar to us, his “Buddha-like” sculpture of Gertrude Stein sits in Bryant Park, at the east end just behind the Library — one of the very few public sculptures of women in New York City. An enlarged version of Davidson’s 1934 bust of President Franklin D. Roosevelt now resides at Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, a four-acre memorial to the 32nd U.S. President opened in 2012. The two developed a lifelong friendship, with Davidson saying that FDR “won me completely with his charm, his beautiful voice and his freedom from constraint.”

Emma Goldman’s gravestone in Forest Park, IL, featuring bas relief by Davidson. (Sadly the stonecutter got her birth and death dates wrong.)

A bit farther from home, about 40 miles north of Manhattan, at Bear Mountain State Park in Rockland County, Davidson’s Walt Whitman appears to walk along the Appalachian Trail.  Emma Goldman’s gravestone in Forest Park, IL features Davidson’s portrait of her in bas relief and another casting of the full-size Whitman can be found in Philadelphia.

A bronze Whitman walks tall in Philadelphia. Image via philart.net.

 

Clearly a celebrated artist in his day, Davidson participated in yearly Whitney exhibitions throughout the 1940’s.

Jo Davidson passed away on January 2, 1952, after publishing his autobiography, Between Sittings. In 1951 he also began what would be his last project, a series of portraits of Israeli leaders. He unfortunately didn’t complete the collection. His January 3, 1952 obituary in the New York Times lists his incredible achievements throughout his life. Clearly, though his name may not be known to many today, the artist “was, and kept, ‘the best company in the world’” during his prolific career.

Jo Davidson’s lengthy obituary in the New York Times celebrated the artist’s achievements.

 

Jo Davidson is one of the many artists found on our Greenwich Village Historic District, 1969-2019 map, in the Artists’ Homes tour.

One response to “Jo Davidson’s “Plastic History,” Featuring His Village Friends

  1. Terrific writing about a significant artist that I never heard of. Thanks for making me aware of his work and the world in which he lived . Sounds like a really interesting, exciting life that would be fun to learn more about.
    Well done

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