Private Collection

Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)

Parson looking for his keys, 1933

SKU: 10839

Inscribed by the artist, Blackheath, on the reverse

oil on board


Size:
Height – 35.6cm
Width – 25.4cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
The Artist’s Studio
Presentation:
framed

Literature: Gargoyles & Tattie-Bogles: the lives and work of Douglas Percy Bliss and Phyllis Dodd, Fleece Press, 2018, p.132

Paul Stamper has suggest that In terms of architectural style this church is likely to have been in the Scottish borders – Bliss was educated and Edinburgh and lived in Scotland for much of his life.

The artists  inscription, Blackheath, on the reverse, suggests that the painting might equally have been  painted in Blackheath.

We are grateful to Paul Stamper and Rosalind and Prudence Bliss for assistance.

 

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THE ARTIST

Douglas Percy Bliss
Douglas Percy
Bliss
1900 - 1984

Douglas Percy Bliss (28 January 1900’11 March 1984) was a Scottish painter and art conservationist. Bliss’s family was from Northamptonshire, England. Bliss himself was born in Karachi, India (now in Pakistan). Bliss was raised in Edinburgh and educated at George Watson’s College from 1906 to 1917.

Bliss left school in 1917 to join the Highland Light Infantry until the end of WW1

In 1922 he was awarded an M.A. in English Literature by the University of Edinburgh. He had studied Art History in his first year. Bliss then studied painting at the Royal College of Art in London. In his post-graduate year he studied engraving. In 1925 the Oxford University Press published his engravings illustrating Border ballads. Bliss then received a number of commissions, including a commission to write A History of Wood Engraving. This work received such critical acclaim that Bliss’ reputation as an artist was overshadowed by his reputation as a critic and teacher.

In 1928 Bliss married Phyllis Dodd, who was a painter. Encouraged by his wife Bliss took up painting again, painting oil and watercolour landscapes in Scotland and England. Coincidentally his paintings record the end of an era of small-holding. He also painted some urban scenes just before the towns were transformed by high rise and high-density buildings.

In the 1930s Bliss established the Blackheath Society, which continues today to attempt to protect the amenity of life in south-east London. In the 1930s he taught at the Blackheath School of Art and was the London art critic for The Scotsman.

In 1941 Bliss joined the RAF and was stationed in Scotland. After the war he was appointed Director of the Glasgow School of Art. He referred to Glasgow as “the greatest industrial city in the Empire”. Bliss was instrumental in saving much of the Art Nouveau architecture and furniture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He continued as Director from 1946 until 1964. When he completed his period as Director, Glasgow School of Art was listed by Whitaker’s Almanack among the six top Art Schools in Britain.

Bliss’s own art was exhibited around Britain. There was an exhibition of his work in the Glasgow School of Art, in the northern hemisphere summer of 1998.

Much of the work of Bliss’s youth has been lost. Most of his engravings were unpublished before the beginning of the War in 1939 and his entire collection was stolen during the Blitz. Decades later sixteen degraded blocks were identified at an auction. Most split when printing was attempted.

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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Duntulm, Isle of Skye, 1927
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
‘Satires in Stones, The Sportsman’. 1923.
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Cottage with Picket Fence, 1929
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Self Portait, 1923
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Parson looking for his keys, 1933
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Snow in Blackheath, (Christmas, 1938)
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Winter, Artist’s Garden, 1953
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“The Sun, the Sun”!!Vincent Van Gogh at Arles, circa 1934
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Titian
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In his element: Rembrandt’s pupil, Gerard Dou
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BR Haydon torn between “High Art” and a selling line of “Napoleans Musing”
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Courbet and Baudelaire
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Paul Gauguin in his Polynesian Paradise
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Aerial View, circa 1940
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Ivy Cottage in the Spring, 1946
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Satires of Highland Gatherings; ‘Heavy Events’ at the Strathbannock Highland Gathering, circa 1935
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Things that go bump in the Night, May 1931
Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Castlebay, Barra, (Barraigh), 1933
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Boy Scaring Crows, 1925
Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Blackford Hill Edinburgh, August 1930
Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
The Merry-Go-Round, 1973
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
Lovers sheltering from a storm, 1936
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Douglas Percy Bliss (1900 - 1984)
The Gamekeeper, 1934