A.L. Smith, Master of Balliol

Francis Dodd (1874-1949), portrait painter, landscape artist and printmaker, was born in Holyhead in Wales, the son of a Wesleyan minister. He trained at the Glasgow School of Art alongside his better-known contemporary, also represented in Te Papa's collection, Muirhead Bone, who married Dodd's sister. At Glasgow, Dodd won the Haldane Scholarship in 1893 and then travelled around France, Italy and later Spain. He returned to England in 1895 and settled in Manchester, becoming friends with the leading modern architet Charles Holden before moving to Blackheath in London in 1904.

During World War I in 1916, he was appointed an official war artist by Charles Masterman, the head of the War Propaganda Bureau. Serving on the Western Front, he produced more than 30 portraits of senior military figures, many of which are in Te Papa's collection in the form of postcards. 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. From 1911 Dodd lived at Arundel House in Blackheath, South London, until he took his own life in 1949.

Arthur Lionel Smith was Master of Balliol College, Oxford, from 1916-24. He had a lifelong association with Balliol, coming up as an undergraduate in 1869. He began teaching history there in 1879 and in the same year became one of Oxford's first married Fellows after the regulations were changed. He contributed significantly to University life, in particular by working to make Oxford open to all. He and his wife had nine children; most of their daughters married Balliol men and many descendants were and are Balliol alumni.

Even before Smith became Master, he was the subject of several portraits by  Dodd. He made two drypoints in 1915, this being the second. This is a reversed design either after the oil portrait which Dodd completed in 1913, or a study for the painting. The painting was presented by subscribers to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1914; Balliol also holds a probable study for the head in coloured chalks.

See:

British Museum, 'A L Smith', http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1553154&partId=1&searchText=Dodd+Sm ith&page=1

Wikipedia, 'Francis Dodd', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Dodd_(artist)

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    April 2018