Early Years and Study

Sommer im Schutzengraben

Church steeple watercolor

Sketches of objects in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs

Davidson's converted apartment

The notebooks of J. R. Davidson span a period of almost 30 years, starting in Europe and continuing, briefly, after his arrival in the USA, aged 40. Copious detailed drawings and texts within the pages provide biographical information about his early apprenticeships, as well as evidence of the man’s artistic and architectural interests and influences, enabling an otherwise undocumented reconstruction of his early life and education. Like a visual diary, the notebooks are a personal documentation of the art and architecture with which he came into contact, providing insight into the sources of inspiration that shaped his autodidactic training. Details and dimensions of furniture seen in museums in Berlin, London, and Paris, shapes and styles of buildings in the localities where he found himself, are carefully recorded, each specifying time and place. The drawing of the lampshade tunic, for example, illustrates Davidson’s interest in Paul Poiret, the well-known fashion designer of the time, and for whose collaborators Davidson worked while in Paris.

From French Rococo to Art Nouveau, Davidson’s drawings convey a love for detail and an obsession with ornamentation and decorative elements in furniture design, porcelain, and lamps. Drawn initially to furniture and interiors, Davidson widened his interest to the larger environment of architecture after encountering Hermann Muthesius’s book The English House (1904), which introduced him to the art of construction in England.

On his way to the war front, in 1916, Davidson recorded the architectural typologies and details he encountered, filling a notebook on vernacular farmhouses, roof structures, floor plans, and landscaping.

Later notebooks, from after his arrival on the East Coast, show sketches of buildings in Spanish Colonial style along with details of Spanish tile ornamentation, a visual foreshadowing of his later environment in California.

Davidson’s final notebook from 1929 is his own architecture construction manual, where he notes local practices, such as timber construction methods or the ingredients for concrete mixtures. Consistently methodological, a glossary records translations of the most important architectural terms from German into English and a conversion table from metric to imperial measurements.