David Watson Stevenson
(D.W. Stevenson)

1842 - 1904

Sculptor. Born at Ratho, to the west of Edinburgh, he was the elder brother of another sculptor William Grant Stevenson (1849 - 1919) with whom he was to form a partnership. Stevenson trained at the Trustee's School (Edinburgh) and was an apprentice in the studio of the sculptor William Brodie (1815-81). He won a national prize for a statuette of Venus de Milo, and thereafter he went on to complete his studies in Rome (Italy).

Stevenson then helped Sir John Steell (1804-91) create the Prince Albert Memorial in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square, contributing corner groups of figures along with William Brodie (1815-81). His statue of William Wallace (1274 - 1305), in bronze on the Wallace Monument near Stirling is well known. He contributed figures to the Scott Monument, in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens and in the same city sculpted the statue of Hygeia within St. Bernard's Well alongside the Water of Leith. He was also responsible for the rather similarly-styled Saracen Fountain in the Alexandra Park (Dennistoun, Glasgow). Other sculptures include the poet and song-writer Robert Tannahill (1884) in Paisley and statues of the bard Robert Burns (1759-96), including in Leith at the bottom of Leith Walk, as well as Burns' love Highland Mary (1896) in Dunoon.

Stevenson maintained a studio in Dean (Edinburgh) and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy from 1859.

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