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Jo Davidson (1883-1952)

SOLD

American, Lived/Active: New York and Paris.
France Aroused, A study or Maquette.
Signed and dated, Jo Davidson/ N.Y. 1917.
Bronze, dark brown patina, mounted on black marble.
From the collection of Ted Stebbins, Ma., purchased from William Poster, Boston, 1982.
This study for a 20-foot-high sculpture originally called, L’Appel aux Armes was thought of and created by Davidson as an express of the intense feelings the French had toward WW1. The figure represents Bellona, the goddess of war, with her feet squarely planted on the ground, her arms upraised, fists clenched, head thrown back – a cry of rage and protest in fear of the Germans attack on Marne, France. In an article for Vanity Fair in September, 1917, Pemberton Clarke described the Sculpture, created on McDougal Alley, (N.Y.), “as the personification of the resilient energy and righteous wrath of the French people in the face of the German attack.” Clarke later describes Jo Davidson as, “one of the most important of the young pillars of the temple of American Art”.

Dimensions: 30 ½” h., 8 ¾” x 7 ½” base

Item ID: DA-SO 053

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