Dod Procter / The most famous female artist

Little Sister

Dod Procter 

1890-1972 

Dod Procter RA (born Doris Margaret Shaw, 1890–1972) was an English artist, and wife of artist Ernest Procter. Through the 1920s she specialised in painting the figure, usually single female figures, sometimes nude, others in softly draped clothes. One of these paintings, ‘Morning’, was bought by the Daily Mail for the Tate Gallery collections, which made Dod Procter a household name of the day she went on to become perhaps the most famous female artist of her day. 

Born 21 April 1892 in London. She studied art under Stanhope Forbes at Newlyn c. 1907–8 and at the Atelier Colarossi, Paris. Married the artist Ernest Procter in 1912; they held a joint exhibition of watercolours at the Fine Art Society 1913 and also exhibited at the Leicester Galleries. Exhibited with the International Society from 1918 and at the R.A. from 1922. Member of the N.E.A.C. 1929; A.R.A. 1934, R.A. 1942. She helped her husband on the decorations of the Kokine Palace, Rangoon, 1920. Procter and her husband attended art schools in England and in Paris together, where they were both influenced by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism especially Renoir and Cezanne 

The style of Dod Procter’s later works changed considerably, as did the subject matter, which included landscapes, paintings of children and still-life. She died aged 80, thirty-seven years after her husband. 

She was a member of the Newlyn School and became President of St Ives Society of Artists (STISA) in 1966. Her work was exhibited at the Royal Academy on many occasions.

TATHA GALLERY

The Tall Girl

Dinah Reading

Kitchen at Myrtle Cottage

Morning

The Orchard

Ancilla With An Orange

Burmese Children On The Irawaddy

Head Of A Boy

Jamaican Child

  

Portrait Of A Boy

St. Lucian Girl

The Little Girl

Young Girl Wearing A Lace Bonnet

Young Roman

Dod Procter / Kitchen at Myrtle Cottage

Dod Procter

KITCHEN AT MYRTLE COTTAGE

1930-5

Artist

Dod Procter

Title

Kitchen at Myrtle Cottage

Datec.1930–5

MediumOil paint on canvas

DimensionsSupport: 641 x 762 mm
frame: 838 x 965 x 60 mm

Collection

Tate

AcquisitionPresented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1935

Reference

N04817

The artist wrote (12 October 1958): ‘I cannot remember the date of this picture, but it was probably the early 1930s. The child was in from the village.’ She had lived at Myrtle Cottage, Newlyn, for about eighteen months c. 1907–8 when studying under Stanhope Forbes. A similar picture, but showing her own kitchen at North Corner, Newlyn, is ‘In the Kitchen’, exhibited at the R.A. in 1936 (203).

TATE

Dod Procter / Morning 1926

Dod Procter

Morning 1926

Artist

Dod Procter 1892–1972

Title

Morning

Date1926

MediumOil paint on canvas

DimensionsSupport: 762 x 1524 mm
frame: 1072 x 1832 x 73 mm

Collection

Tate

AcquisitionPresented by the Daily Mail 1927

Reference

N04270

This was voted Picture of the Year at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1927 and bought for the nation by the Daily Mail newspaper. From c.1922 Dod Procter had begun to paint a series of simple, monumental portraits of young women that she knew, utilising the fall of light across the figures to give a powerful sense of volume. The model was Cissie Barnes, the sixteen year old daughter of a fisherman from Newlyn, the Cornish village that was home to Dod Procter for most of her working life. The popularity of thispainting led to its being displayed in New York, followed by a tour of Britain from 1927 to 1929.

Dod PROCTER b. 1892

Figure, landscape and flower painter. Born 21 April 1892 in London, daughter of Dr F. C. Shaw. Studied art under Stanhope Forbes at Newlyn c. 1907–8 and at the Atelier Colarossi, Paris. Married the artist Ernest Procter in 1912; they held a joint exhibition of watercolours at the Fine Art Society 1913 and also exhibited at the Leicester Galleries. Exhibited with the International Society from 1918 and at the R.A. from 1922. Member of the N.E.A.C. 1929; A.R.A. 1934, R.A. 1942. Helped her husband on the decorations of the Kokine Palace, Rangoon, 1920. Honourable mention at the 25th and 27th International Exhibitions at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1926 and 1928. Lives and works at Newlyn, Cornwall.

TATE

Dod Procter / The Orchard

Dod Procter

(1892 - 1972)

The Orchard, 1934

Artist

Dod Procter 

Title

The Orchard

Date1934

MediumOil paint on canvas

DimensionsSupport: 1016 x 1270 mm
frame: 1190 x 1452 x 77 mm

Collection

Tate

AcquisitionPresented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1937

Reference

N05325

This was painted from life in the artist's garden at North Corner, Newlyn, Cornwall. The model is probably Eileen Mayo, a London-based professional model whom Dod Procter invited down to Cornwall and made the subject of several other paintings. All the other paintings of Mayo show her in an interior, this is the onlycanvas which depicts her nude in the open air. Procter produced numerous paintings of nude women and young girls during the decade 1925 to 1935 which were highly acclaimed for their objectivity and simplicity. What was, and still is, unusual is that these female nudes were painted by a female artist.

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