Polish/American, 1889 - 1965
Davidson emigrated to the United States with his family when he was ten years old and settled in Waterbury, Connecticut. In his teen years he went to New York where he worked in the shop of a crayon artist for whom he did odd jobs and eventually drew backgrounds for crayon portraits. He entered the Academy school in 1907, and the next year had work accepted in the annual exhibition. He was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters's Prix de Rome which provided for him to study at the American Academy in Rome from 1913 to 1916. Remaining in Rome, he served in the American Red Cross during World War I.
Davidson taught mural painting at Cooper Union from 1925 to 1932; he also taught at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. He received the gold medal for painting from the Architectural League in 1926. In 1941 he acquired an old farmhouse in Huntington, Connecticut, which he made his permanent residence. An exhibition of his easel paintings, mostly landscapes, was held at the Mattatuck (Connecticut) Historical Society in 1944.
Davidson's primary form was the mural; his major commissions include decorative panels for: the Buffalo (New York) Savings Bank; the Sterling Library and the Law School, Yale University; Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; Columbia University Library, New York; Federdal Building, 1939 New York World's Fair; Mount Royal Hotel, Montreal, Canada; Mitsui Bank, Tokyo, Japan; State Capitol, Nashville, Tennessee; Harkness Chapel, Connecticut College for Women, New London. Under commission of the Edwin Austin Abbey Mural Fund, administered by the Academy, Davidson executed decorations for the Mattatuck (Connecticut) Historical Society in 1960; and in 1961, working with Eugene Savage he did a one thousand square foot masaic Jurisprudence for the Queens County (New York) Court House.
Davidson taught mural painting at Cooper Union from 1925 to 1932; he also taught at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. He received the gold medal for painting from the Architectural League in 1926. In 1941 he acquired an old farmhouse in Huntington, Connecticut, which he made his permanent residence. An exhibition of his easel paintings, mostly landscapes, was held at the Mattatuck (Connecticut) Historical Society in 1944.
Davidson's primary form was the mural; his major commissions include decorative panels for: the Buffalo (New York) Savings Bank; the Sterling Library and the Law School, Yale University; Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; Columbia University Library, New York; Federdal Building, 1939 New York World's Fair; Mount Royal Hotel, Montreal, Canada; Mitsui Bank, Tokyo, Japan; State Capitol, Nashville, Tennessee; Harkness Chapel, Connecticut College for Women, New London. Under commission of the Edwin Austin Abbey Mural Fund, administered by the Academy, Davidson executed decorations for the Mattatuck (Connecticut) Historical Society in 1960; and in 1961, working with Eugene Savage he did a one thousand square foot masaic Jurisprudence for the Queens County (New York) Court House.
