Richard Davis (1904-1964) was born in New York, NY, and educated at the Horace Mann School and Cornell University (1925). He studied sculpture in Paris (1928-1930) at Académie de la Grande Chaumière under Emile-Antoine Bourdelle. He returned to New York and established a studio in the city as well as a summer studio in Cresco, PA. In New York he studied sculpture with Jose de Creeft and Ahron Ben-Schmuel.

During the 1930s and 1940s he exhibited widely, and his work was acquired by museums and private collectors. A one-man show in 1937 at the Ferargil Galleries in New York drew strong reviews.  Exhibitions included the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), the Brooklyn Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), Le Salon d’Automne (Paris), The Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh), the National Sculpture Society, the Sculptors Guild, and other sites.

Jackson Pollack (1912-1956), famed abstract expressionist of the “splatter paint” or “drip technique” style, was among the visitors to the Cresco cabin. In the summer of 1933 both Pollack and Davis were students of the sculptor Ahron Ben-Schmuel who also had a Pennsylvania summer studio about 100 miles away at Upper Black Eddy. Pollack reputedly parted ways with Ben-Schmuel and came to Cresco for the 3 months of the summer. Pollack and Davis apparently sketched together, and the two men attended local events and dances. With autumn, Davis returned to his New York studio while Pollack occasionally borrowed the Cresco cabin alone. That did not last long, as Davis reported that Pollack was an incredibly messy and careless tenant.

Among the visitors to the Cresco cabin during the summer of 1937 were the painter Bertram Hartman and the animal artist Walter Addison. Davis was crafting the large granite sculpture Bison and both graphic artists were drawn to the bison theme as illustrated in that section of this website.

Richard Davis was sought out as a portrait sculptor and created lifelike heads in stone, wood, and in clay then cast in bronze. Larger works carved directly in stone included Seated Woman (1936) in Missouri marble, Girl in Granite (1937), Bison (1938) in black granite, Flight (1939) in black granite, a Mexican man and woman (1941), Lion Cub, and others.

Davis and his new wife Grethe Sundt moved to Utica, NY, in 1941 where he initiated the sculpture department at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, now MUNSON.  A back injury skiing in 1943 prevented him from sculpting in stone and he returned to New York City to join his father’s construction company. He continued to produce occasional small pieces in clay but never returned to sculpture as a full-time profession.  He died in Pleasantville, NY in 1964.