![]() ![]() Town also had important social contacts, some of which were used by Davis to great benefit. Davis spent many happy hours in Town’s architectural library, at the time the best in America. It brought him to the cutting edge of American architecture-Town was an innovative leader in the Greek Revival style, as well as a respected engineer and expert in bridge construction. Working with Town gave Davis, at age twenty-six, extraordinary opportunities. In 1826, Davis went to work for Ithiel Town and Martin E. He was a superb watercolorist, and throughout his career, did almost all of his own drafting and drawing. His artistic temperament and eye imbued his work with its special, imaginative quality. Design, not structure or theory, was his chief interest and strength. Rapidly learning the skills of an architectural illustrator, his work was printed by many prominent publishers.ĭavis’ talent as an architectural illustrator had an important effect on his architectural career. Morse, and Rembrandt Peale, who advised him to concentrate on architecture. ![]() He befriended many of the most important artists of the day, including John Trumbull, Samuel F. Davis studied at the American Academy of the Fine Arts, the New-York Drawing Association, and the Antique School of the National Academy of Design. When his apprenticeship was completed in 1823, he returned to New York City, having decided to become an artist. Bored by the work, Davis spent much of his time reading romantic novels and acting in amateur theatricals, for which he may have also designed the stage sets. ![]() Just before he turned fifteen years old, he was sent to Alexandria, Virginia, to learn the printing trade in a half-brother’s newspaper office. The son of a relatively poor bookseller and publisher of religious tracts who moved around the Northeast in search of a market for his works, Davis grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and then the rapidly growing towns of Utica and Auburn in central New York State. Davis was born in New York City on July 24, 1803. America’s greatest architect of the mid-nineteenth century, a designer of picturesque buildings in myriad styles, Alexander J. ![]()
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