Randall Vernon Davey
Born New Jersey, 1887
Died California, 1964
Born in East Orange, New Jersey, Randall Vernon Davey was a muralist, printmaker, sculptor, painter, and teacher. Davey wished to pursue an art career when he graduated from high school, but his father wanted him to attend college. In 1905, Davey entered the liberal arts program at Cornell University. He later transferred to the school of architecture before he left the school in 1908 without finishing his studies. He left Cornell in order to pursue his art career, and he began studying at the New York School of Art under Robert Henri and Charles W. Hawthorne. Davey's artistic style was strongly influenced by Henri, and his artistic approach was strongly influenced by Hawthorne. Hawthorne liked to explore the psyche and character of his subjects, and Davey began to do the same with his own subjects.
In 1910, Davey toured Europe with Henri. When he returned to the U.S., he painted with George Bellows on Monhegan Island in Maine. In 1912, Davey became the assistant instructor in Henri's summer painting classes in Spain. Along with Henri, Davey exhibited a painting at the Armory Show in New York in 1913. In 1915, Davey won the National Academy of Design's Second Hallgarten Prize and an honorable mention at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Shortly after, he participated in the founding of The Society of Independent Artists.
In 1919, after spending some time in Cuba avoiding military service in WWI, Davey traveled with John Sloan to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Soon after, Davey and his wife settled in Santa Fe and remained there for more than forty years. He was very influential in the art community of Santa Fe. Davey did not paint the Indians of Santa Fe, rather he painted landscapes, portraits, still lifes, nude figures, horse-racing, and polo matches. He was commissioned to do several murals, some of which are at the Will Rogers Memorial Shrine in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Beginning in 1920, Davey taught at the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Chicago Art Institute School, the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design, and the University of New Mexico. In 1938, he was elected membership in the National Academy of Design.
Exhibited: Armory Show, 1913; PAFA, 1913-1949; NAD, 1914-50 (prize, 1915); AIC; Salons of Am.; WMAA; S.Indp.A.; Grand Central Gal, 1939 (prize).
Works held: AIC; CGA; WMAA; Montclair Art Mus.; Kansas City AI; CMA; Detroit Inst. Art; Mus. of New Mexico, Santa Fe; U.S. Navy Dept.; WPA murals, USPO, Vinita, Claremore, OK; Will Roger's Shrine, Colorado Springs, CO.
Further Reading: Taft, Robert. Artists and Illustrators of the Old West, 1850-1900. New York: Bonanza Books.; The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Peggy and Harold Samuels, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976.; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. 1. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds.,Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.
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