Herndon Davis

Herndon Davis (1901-1962) was an American artist, journalist, illustrator, and painter. He worked at the National War College in Washington, D.C. creating maps of China and Japan. Davis was an illustrator for New York, Washington, D.C. and Denver newspapers. He was also commissioned to make paintings and murals.

He moved to Denver in 1936, where his paintings captured notable people and landmarks of Denver and the west. "In some cases Davis provides the only extant image of certain people and places. In hundreds of colorful paintings and drawings he adds impressively to our portrait gallery," according to James X. Kroll, Manager, Western History and Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library, where many of Davis works are exhibited.

His subjects ranged from notorious prostitutes, like Ella "Cattle Kate" Watson, to Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr. Davis made paintings of houses and mansions, like that owned by William Byers. He also captured the stately Tabor Grand Opera House and buildings that had significantly changed over time. Davis created a painting of an art gallery that used to be a brothel and another of a "shabby" apartment building that has been an elegant hotel. He painted The Face on the Barroom Floor, depicting his wife, on the bar room floor of Teller House in Central City.

Herndon Davis was in Wynnewood, Oklahoma born in 1901. His parents were ranchers. The family moved often. Davis moved to Kansas City, Missouri when he was fourteen to take art lessons, which he supported by taking unskilled jobs. He then moved to Chicago and worked as an apprentice to an engraver and as a commercial artist.

He joined the army and was stationed in Denver in 1920 before being transferred to work on maps of China and Japan at the War College in Washington D.C. Davis attended Yale briefly. He then moved to New York where he attended the National Academy of Design and Art Students League of New York. Davis lived in Greenwich Village. He was employed by the New York Herald Tribune, Washington Times-Herald and Washington Daily News.

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