Stephen Bone

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.

This drypoint is a highly attractive, and surely affectionate, portrait of one artist by another, spanning the generations. Stephen Bone, then in his mid-20s, is depicted by Dodd, who was also his uncle (Dodd's portrait of Muirhead Bone, is also in Te Papa's collection [1967-0002-11]). Stephen is shown seated, with a wood-cutter's knife and wood block. His woodcuts achieved him early success in book illustration, before he turned increasingly to painting and art criticism. Bone became art critic for the <em>Manchester Guardian</em>, and was a significant World War Two artist. He died prematurely in 1958; poignantly, Sir John Ilott  presented the print to the National Art Gallery, forerunner of Te Papa, that same year.

What also comes over in the portrait is Bone's exceptional handsomeness, looking all the more debonair in his sports jacket, and enhanced by his rakishly unkempt hair. The strong chin and steady gaze communicate a character who seems very confident in his profession. Bone was a very tall man, which is evident from the comparatively tiny size of his rush-seated chair.

See:

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

Wikipedia, 'Stephen Bone', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Bone

Worthopedia, https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/francis-dodd-original-pencil-signed-1731573264

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    April 2018