Artist Biography & Facts

Vestie Davis

This following biography was researched, compiled, and written by Geoffrey K. Fleming, Executive Director, Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV.  

VESTIE EDWARD DAVIS (November 10, 1903 – November 1978)
A.K.A. “Vestie E. Davis,” “Vesty Davis”

Self-taught painter of city scenes and animals. Born in Hillsboro, Maryland, the son of Jennie D. (b. 1880) and Edward B. Davis (1879 – 1961), his father was a blacksmith and the family resided in Hillsboro, a small town located on the eastern shore of Maryland.

While Davis reported doing some drawing as a child, he did not return to his artwork until later in life. During the interim he moved to New York (1928) where he worked for nearly two decades at a variety of jobs, including railroad conductor, embalmer, circus barker and ticket taker, newsstand operator, pall bearer and organist. The last position, that of organist, was one that he held at his church in Brooklyn for many years even after he became successful as a painter.

The story that Davis himself told on numerous occasions is that in 1947, at the age of forty-four, he decided to become a painter. He noted in a number of interviews a similar story: “I was walking east on 57th Street and came to a big gallery… …I looked in the window and saw some pictures I liked. One showed a farmhouse with a barnyard, a rail fence, a girl, a collie and a cow. [I] looked at it and said, ‘1 can paint like that.’ ” Whether apocryphal or not, Davis purchased art supplies soon after and began experimenting with painting, settling on the style for which he eventually became known. He noted a few years after receiving some success with his paintings that he was once warned by an art teacher who had seen his work: “Don’t take art lessons. They’re liable to make an abstract or something out of you.”

Davis and his wife, Edna (1895 – 1989), moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1947, where for many years they resided at 123 Bay 29th Street. His first big break into the art world occurred at the 1951 Greenwich Village art exhibition, where “32 views of his black cat, Tommy” were featured and where he was discovered by Morris Weisenthal of the Morris Gallery. As his street scenes became more popular with the public, Davis received commissions for people’s favorite views of their neighborhoods and the city in general. His growing popularity led to the selection of one of his views of Coney Island for the cover of the September 6, 1958 issue of The New Yorker.

Davis became especially known for his colorful scenes depicting the charm of Coney Island. His most popular views incorporated local landmarks such as the old Steeplechase Park parachute drop and Nathan’s hot dog stand. He even worked as a circus barker and ticket taker at Coney Island to get a better understanding of the place. While his paintings sold for a range of prices (from as little as ten dollars to well into the mid hundreds) it was the larger, more complicated works depicting multiple figures that came to command the best prices. As he once noted to reporters, “The more people I put in… [my paintings] …the faster they sold.” In some of his more complicated works there are as many as 300-500 figures.

Much of Davis’s work was created in a small attic studio located in his Brooklyn home, where he would use pieced together photographs that he personally took to aid in the creation of his larger, panoramic scenes. He noted that, depending on the size and level of detail, a typical painting would take him two to six weeks to complete. Regarding his choice of subjects, Davis said: “I paint what people want and they want what's familiar to them.” During the autumn of 1959, one of his paintings was included in an exhibition of works selected from the collection of the American self-taught painter, Sterling Strauser (1907 – 1995) presented in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. Local reviewers were impressed by Davis’s work:

“Vesty Davis’ lone contribution makes one wish to see more of this artist. His ‘Greenwich Village’ of impeccably clean, clear color casts a warm sun upon a sidewalk art exhibit. The meticulous execution of the primitive evolves in the paint quality of a brick paved street, the scrupulous rendition of tiny paintings, hung on the fence and in the lovingly painted background.”

From the late 1950s through the late 1970s Davis’s works were exhibited regularly at New York regional art fairs and at a number of important institutions, such as the Museum of American Folk Art. They would routinely receive praise from critics, with one commenting: “Davis’ pictures are colorful and strangely appealing… …There is truth in his use of the brush.” One of his final lifetime exhibitions was at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1977.

Vestie E. Davis died of cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City in November of 1978, though the exact date remains unknown at present. He was cremated at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, on November 12, 1978 and interred in section 3104 of the Greenwood Columbarium (this interment date conflicts with his New York Times obituary that indicates he died on the 14th, which is impossible if he was cremated on the 12th).

Davis was a prolific artist, creating works both in color and black and white. While his Coney Island scenes are his most famous, he depicted many other New York City landmarks, including the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, George Washington Bridge, Jefferson Market Courthouse in Greenwich Village, New York City Hall in Manhattan, the Plaza Hotel, Queensborough Bridge, Rockefeller Center, Statute of Liberty, The Cloisters, The James A. Farley Building, Wall Street and Washington Square Park. Davis noted during his own lifetime that some of the buildings he was depicting might one day be lost, so he took great care to depict them in detail. His prediction has become especially true in Coney Island where many historic sites were lost during his lifetime. In addition to famous buildings and locations, Davis created scenes of daily life in the city, including views of street art fairs, people coming and going to work on its elevated trains and imagery depicting members of the Hasidic community of Brooklyn. He most often signed his paintings “Vestie E. Davis.”

Davis became well known enough during his lifetime that he was included (posthumously) in the 1979 book 20th Century American Folk Art and Artists, which was written by Herbert W. Hemphill Jr. and Julia Weissman. He was given a retrospective exhibition in late 2009/early 2010 at the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City. The museum perfectly summed up his work when they noted: “The New York of Vestie Davis (1903–1978) is a bright, sparkling place with impressive and diverse landmark buildings, bridges, parks, and beaches. It is a hub of civic, business, and recreational activity chronicled in [his] meticulously detailed pictures…”

Though there are undoubtedly other exhibitions in which Davis participated, those presently known include the following: Greenwich Village Exhibition, New York, NY, 1951; Pyramid Club, Philadelphia, PA, 1957; Gallery Art Club, East Stroudsburg, PA, 1957; Hazelton Art League, Hazelton, PA, 1959; Washington Square Art Fair, New York, NY, 1960; St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Exhibition, Buffalo, NY, 1961; Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY, 1962; Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 1962; Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA, 1962; Riverdale Outdoor Art Show, Riverdale, NY, 1965 (prize); Museum of Modern Art Traveling Exhibition at Cheekwood, Nashville, TN, 1966; Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, 1970, 2009-10 (retrospective); American Folk Art Traveling Exhibition, Japan, 1976; Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM, c. 1977; Jay Johnson Folk Heritage Gallery, New York, NY, 1980 (memorial exhibition?).

Davis’s works are currently known to be in the collection of the following public institutions: Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY; Davenport Museum of Art, Davenport, IA; Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. His works also reside in many private collections throughout the United States.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 10, 1903, he went to New York City in 1928 and worked as a circus barker, newsstand manager and undertaker. Completely unschooled in the arts, he began painting after seeing a gallery painting on 57th Street.  He said, "I can paint like that" and went to the paint store.  Within a few days, he completed a work which sold. 

He is referred to as the city primitive.  Discovered by a collector, he was featured at the Museum of American Folk Art. 

At first he painted only buildings but found that more popular were scenes with people.  None of them are ever in a hurry.  There is a sense of peace and joy and civility.