Strand with sky

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 etching/drypoint of <em>Strand with sky </em>has as its focal point James Gibbs's famous early 18th century church of St Mary le Strand, in London's West End. It shows Dodd's mastery of architectural depiction - a thorough understanding of the building's engineering as well as its picturesque aspect. But he isn't concerned with flattery - evident in the conspicuous scaffolding immediately below the tower. At ground level, London's busy life goes on. Perhaps more remarkable is the dramatic, atmospheric, blackened sky; Dodd inked his etching plate to great effect here. As a contrast, Dodd left the plate unworked to create a more conventional effect in <em>St Mary le Strand</em> (1963-0005-17), which was also given to the National Art Gallery, Te Papa's predecessor, by Sir John Ilott.

See:

Fondation Custodia - Collection Frits Lugt, https://www.fondationcustodia.fr/26-Francis-Dodd-308

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

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    April 2018