David Watson Stevenson

David Watson Stephenson (25 March 1842 – 18 March 1904) was a Scottish sculptor, executing portraits and monuments in marble and bronze.

Biography

Stevenson was born in Ratho, Midlothian, Scotland, on 25 March 1842, the son of William Stevenson and Margaret Kay. He studied at the Trustees' Academy, Edinburgh. From 1860 he took an eight-year apprenticeship under the sculptor William Brodie. He won the South Kensington National Prize for student sculpture with a statuette of the Venus de Milo and completed his studies in Rome, Italy.

He worked as assistant to Sir John Steell on the Prince Albert Monument forming the centrepiece of Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. He lived in a townhouse at 2 Castle Terrace facing onto St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street.

Stevenson died on 18 March 1904, aged 61. His funeral took place at his brother's home. Several Royal Scottish Academicians attended the funeral. The 1st Highland Company of the Queen's Rifle Volunteer Brigade, which D.W. Stevenson had previously commanded, was also respresented.

He is buried with his younger brother, William Grant Stevenson, also a sculptor, in the south-west section of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh. The bronze portrait relief head of William on the monument was sculpted by Henry Snell Gamley.

Works

Stevenson's most famous and publicly seen statue is the figure of William Wallace on the Wallace Monument in Stirling. This 20-foot-tall bronze statue, mounted on the corner of the monument, should not be confused with the modern statue in the parking area near the visitor centre.

Stevenson made the figures of Mary, Queen of Scots, James VI of Scotland, and Halbert Glendinning on the Scott Monument, Edinburgh (1874); the Henry Bolckow Monument, Middlesbrough (1881); Robert Tannahill, Paisley (1884) and (Mary Campbell (Highland Mary)), Dunoon (1896). The statue was unveiled on October 17, 1898.

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