Henry Agard Wallace (1888-1965) was an editor and agriculturist before becoming engaged with politics during the New Deal. Davidson met Wallace when he was the secretary of agriculture and modeled his portrait several years later when he was vice president (1941-45). Davidson believed Wallace projected a "feeling of wide open spaces, a clean beauty, and of strong healthy optimism." His positive idealism is here conveyed by the tilt of the head and distant gaze. Three years later Davidson modeled a more formal, fuller bust for the United States Senate chambers.
A cast of the head from an earlier edition and originally owned by the sitter is in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.