Davida Johnson Clark

Davida Johnson Clark

Quick Facts

Place of Birth:

Sweden

Date of Birth:

December 30, 1861

Place of Death:

Newark, New Jersey

Date of Death:

September 15, 1910

Place of Burial:

Darien, Connecticut

Cemetery Name:

Spring Grove Cemetery

Davida Johnson Clark, originally Albertina Davida Jönsson, was born in Sweden and immigrated to the United States around 1879.[1] She eventually began modeling and her likeness continues to be immortalized in many iconic sculptures.

It’s unclear exactly how Davida Clark and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens first met, but she began modeling for him in 1881. She first modeled for angel figures for the Edwin Morgan tomb.[2] Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the plaster casts created by Saint-Gaudens and the tomb was never realized. However, Clark’s angel figure later served as the source of inspiration for the Amor Caritas. [3] Meaning “love and charity,” the Amor Caritas was the culmination of Saint-Gaudens’ sculpted allegorical women that he created throughout his career.

Saint-Gaudens also modeled the face of his famous Diana statue after Davida Clark. [4] Installed as a weathervane on top of the tower of Madison Square Garden in New York City, Saint-Gaudens' Diana was an iconic fixture within the city skyline until the demolishment of the building in 1925.  During the day, the gilded statue could be seen from all over the city. The statue could also be seen at night since it was one of the first statues in the city to be electrified.[5]

While modeling for Saint-Gaudens, the two began a romantic relationship that lasted for over two decades. Frances Grimes, an assistant to Saint-Gaudens, described Saint-Gaudens as being “madly in love” with Davida Clark.[6] Their relationship resulted in the birth of Saint-Gaudens' second son, Louis “Novy” Clark in 1889. Much of their relationship is shrouded in mystery.  Augustus Saint-Gaudens set up a household for Davida Clark and their son in Darien, Connecticut, visiting the two from New York City as often as he could.

Upon his death in 1907, Davida Clark inherited land in the Arlington Heights area of Kearny, New Jersey that had been purchased by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.[7] Clark lived the rest of her life in New Jersey until her death in 1910. She is buried alongside her mother, Maria Louisa Johnson, in Darien, Connecticut.
 

Footnotes

[1] Genline AB; Johanneshov, Sweden; GID Number: 100014.4.57400; Roll/Fiche Number: SC-825. Some historians claim that Davida Clark’s real name was Albertina Hulgren or Albertina Hultgren. Information recently found in these indexed Swedish birth records refute this claim; Immigration information: 1910; Census Place: Kearny Ward 3, Hudson, New Jersey; Roll: T624_887; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0238; FHL microfilm: 1374900. 

[2] Burke Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint Gaudens (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1985), 181.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Thayer Tolles, "Augustus Saint-Gaudens in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 66, no. 4 (Spring, 2009), 31.

[5] Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1848-1907, A Master of American Sculpture (Musée des Augustins and Éditions Somogy, 1999), 120.

[6] Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 139.

[7] Ibid., 360.