Francis Dodd (artist)

For the American general, see Francis Dodd (general).

Francis Edgar Dodd
RA
Francis Dodd by Randolph Schwabe, 1916
Born(1874-11-29)29 November 1874
Holyhead, Wales
Died7 March 1949(1949-03-07) (aged 74)
Blackheath, London
EducationGlasgow School of Art
Known forPainting and printmaking
Spouse(s)Mary Arabella Brouncker Ingle (died 1948)
Ellen Margaret Tanner
ElectedRoyal Academy of Arts, 1935

Francis Edgar Dodd RA (29 November 1874 – 7 March 1949) was a British portrait painter, landscape artist and printmaker.

Biography

Portrait of Reginald Tyrwhitt by Dodd, from Admirals of the British Navy published 1917[1]

Dodd was born in Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales, the son of a Wesleyan minister. He trained at the Glasgow School of Art alongside Muirhead Bone, who married Dodd's sister, Gertrude. At Glasgow, Dodd won the Haldane Scholarship in 1893 and then travelled around France, Italy and later Spain.[2] Dodd returned to England in 1895 and settled in Manchester, becoming friends with Charles Holden, before moving to Blackheath in London in 1904.[2]

During World War I, in 1916, he was appointed an official war artist by Charles Masterman, the head of the War Propaganda Bureau, WPB. Serving on the Western Front, he produced more than 30 portraits of senior military figures.[3] However, he also earned a considerable peacetime reputation for the quality of his watercolours and portrait commissions. He was appointed a trustee of the Tate Gallery in 1929, a position he held for six years, and was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1927 and a full Member in 1935.[4]

From 1911 Dodd lived at Arundel House (51 Blackheath Park) in Blackheath, London SE3, until he killed himself in 1949.[5]

References

  1. ^ Francis Dodd (1917). Admirals of the British Navy. London: Country Life and George Newnes Ltd.
  2. ^ a b Mary Anne Stevens (1988). The Edwardians And After, The Royal Academy 1900-1950. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  3. ^ Mallalieu, Huon (19 January 1991). "Home-front battle of the war artists". The Times. p. 17. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  4. ^ "Mr. Francis Dodd". The Times. 10 March 1949. p. 7. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  5. ^ Reade, Brian; rev. Ian Lowe (2004). "Dodd, Francis Edgar (1874–1949)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32847. Retrieved 3 May 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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Professional and academic associations
Preceded by President of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts
1920–24 		Succeeded by
Bertram Nicholls