American, 19th–20th century, male.
Born 26 September 1862, in Utica (New York); died 1928, in Florence.
Painter, illustrator, engraver, watercolourist. Allegorical subjects, genre scenes, figures, nudes, landscapes.
The Eight (Ashcan School).
Arthur Bowen Davies first studied art at the Academy of Design in Chicago in 1878. He then spent two years in Mexico as an industrial draughtsman (1880–1882). On his return to the USA he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1882 with Roy Robertson and Charles Corwin (1882–1886). Four years later he went to New York, where he worked as a magazine illustrator and studied at the Art Students League. In 1893 he made a study trip to Europe, where he encountered Whistler, Delacroix, the Pre-Raphaelites and some Italian painters. In the early years of the 20th century, under the influence of Robert Henri, many painters not only strove to represent reality as it was but also were keen to depict social contexts with a militant desire for verism, showing the background to the things and people they were painting. Among these artists, in 1907 Luks, Sloan and Glackens had the works they submitted to the National Academy of Design rejected. Robert Henri, himself a member of the Academy, withdrew his own work from the exhibition in protest. The following year these four artists were joined by Arthur Davies, Everett Shinn, Maurice Brazil Prendergast and Ernest Lawson in presenting a group exhibition of their own. The group continued to exhibit under the name the...