Dod Procter

Dod Procter (born Doris Shaw, 1892-1972) was a Cornish artist, and wife of artist Ernest Procter[1]. Her painting, Morning, was bought for the nation by the Daily Mail in 1927.[2]

Life and work

Dod Procter studied at Newlyn under Stanhope Forbes and at the Academie Colarossi, Paris.

From around 1922, Proctor painted a series of simplified, monumental images of young women of her acquaintance.[2] They were typified by the volume of the figures, brought out by her use of light and shadow.[2]

When her painting, Morning, in this series, was displayed at the 1927 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, it was voted Picture of the Year and bought by the Daily Mail for the Tate gallery, where it now hangs.[3] Proctor sold the work for £300, but could have achieved ten times that amount.[4] Prior to its permanent home in the Tate, its popularity resulted in its showing in New York, and then a two year tour of Britain.[2]

Both public and critics responded to its "sensuous but sombre style" which evoked the west Cornish "silver light".[4] Frank Rutter, art critic of The Sunday Times, said in 1927 that Morning was "a new vision of the human figure which amounts to the invention of a twentieth century style in portraiture"[5] and "She has achieved apparently with consummate ease that complete presentation of twentieth century vision in terms of plastic design after which Derain and other much praised French painters have been groping for years past."[6] The model for the work was a Newlyn fisherman's 16 year old daughter, Cissie Barnes.[2]

The subjects of her pictures are largely portraits and flowers[7]. During her life-time and after her death her work fell out of favour[8]

Newlyn was Proctor's home for most of her working life.[2]

Selected paintings

* Black and White
* Dinah Reading
* Eileen Mayo
* Fair Woman
* Jeanne's Door
* Morning (1926)
* Portrait of Midge Bruford
* Portrait of a Young Man
* The Orchard
* Virginal

References

1. ^ www.lakesidearts.org.uk
2. ^ a b c d e f "Dod Proctor", Tate. Retrieved on 16 September 2009.
3. ^ Company, Houghton Mifflin (2003), The Houghton Mifflin dictionary of biography, p. 1241, ISBN 9780618252107, http://books.google.com/?id=QfesntdNnbwC
4. ^ a b Koenig, Rhoda. "More than a one-hit wonder", The First Post, p. 2. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
5. ^ King, Averil. Apollo, "An exotic awakening", 1 January 2006. Retrieved from findarticles.com (registration required), 8 August 2008.
6. ^ Lang, Elsie M. British Women in the Twentieth Century, Kessinger Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0766161153, ISBN 9780766161153
7. ^ King, Averil (2005), Newlyn Flowers : The Floral Works of Dod Procter, RA. Philip Wilson Publishers, ISBN 0856676047
8. ^ James, Alison (2007). A Singular Vision: Dod Procter 1890-1972, Sansom & Company Ltd. ISBN 1904537782