The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-02-12
PLASTIC STORY
,IOf War SHOWN
IN EXHIBITION
lArfistry Of 10 Davidson to b
4 Shown ut Library for Two
Weeks On View Today.

III An sexhibition Of the work Of 10
N3ds0n, world famed sculptor.
who describes it as q "plastic his
tory Of the World war;" has been
brought to Rock Island through
the endeavors of the Tri-City Art
league and is now on view at the
public library. 1t will remain here
two weeks. during which time those
who wish. may see 1t during the
regular library hours. from 900
O'Clock in the morning until 800
o'clock in Nhe evening.
Mr.. Davidson has been noted for
some years as a portraitist in
sculpture, having won almost an
iFtant fame some fifieeh years ago
IN London by a portrait bust Of his
mother. As soon as the armistice
was signed he left for France with
tbs idea Of portraying the great
leaders OF the war in the midst Of
their labors.
He has made. without doubt, the
most enduring and valuable record
that has been made in sculpture. 1t
takes no stretch OF the magma
tion to conceive the immense I'M
portance the future will set by
Them.
In speaking Of the work Francis
Mono, French art critic writes:
Each one Of thes portraits rep
resents Q conquest. One does not
know - hat to admire most; the
0hstinacy and audacity used b. the
artist to acquire access to these diff
ferent msh, since he was able to
force Its way to all his sitters, or
the nervous energy and high ten
K0n under which he modelled each
Of these efigies in two and three
hours, in the corner Of the Offices
of the commander-in-chief, or in
the study Of the tired and over
worked diplomat. One must have
seen DR.. Davidson at work to be
able to imagine with what 1apidity
he can construct a mask, make
resemblance with his hands, and
bring out in moment from the in
ert clay, startling, life-like por-
Trait. GO
"The most picturesque of these
instantaneous portraits is the first
IN date, and the most precious of
the series, the bust iof Marshal
Foch. so lifelike and so brusque
that 1t makes one think of con-
trasting sketch in black and white.
He sat for the sculpture in the mil
itary headquarters at Senlis on the
24th OF November, 1918. It vas his
ambition to make a portrait of the
conqueror Of Germany that prompt
ed Mr.. Davidson to make a trip to
Paris the day the armistice was
signed. as Houdon in other times
traversed the Atlantic to make a
portrait of Washington the day aft
sr the signing Of tie Declaration of
Independence.
The sculptor has expressed for
after ages exactly what he saw in
the faces of these men who remade
the world from angry chaos, and
IN this perception and in this. ex-
preston has builded a monument
for himself. It is the thing he saw
and interpreted in each counten-
ance that lifts he portraits far
above the level Of mere representa-
tfoR. In Marshal Foch, the sculp-
tor saw the calculating mind and
the rugged will of the warrior; in
lgnace Paderewwski he saw the
idealist who could become a man
OF action; in Venizelos of Greece he
saw the thinker and builder OF a
nation; in Llrd Robert Cecil the
man who could resolve in his brain
the whole scheme of an empire; in
Pershing the efficient personality
who could marshal a human ma
chine and make it operative"
Much credit should be given the
Trt-City Art league for bringing
this collection here as it has only
been exhibited in some half dozen
OF the large cities, where it has
aroused great interest both from
An artistic point OF view and from
an historical and world interest
view.
CORDOVA