Private
Phyllis Dodd
(1899 - 1995)
Portrait of Tirzah Garwood, 1929
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Phyllis Dodd (1899 - 1995)
Size:
Height – 31.8cm
Width – 38.6cm
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.200.
Several informal but very good likenesses of fellow RCA students from the period demonstrate Dodds skill at portraiture. A series of sketches showing of adults at a baptism includes recognizable portraits, aided by inscribed names on one of the colour sketches. The composition shows portraits of fellow RCA students Beryl Bowker (RCA, c. 1922-25), Ted (Halliday) (1923-25), Oakshott, Pindi, (Kathleen Bridle (1921-25). Myself (Dodd), Enid Marx,(1922-25), Gerry(Gerald) Cooper,(1920-23), (Muriel) Minter (1921-23) and Marianne Thatcher, (graduated 1925)
Phyllis Dodd achieved considerable success from early on in
her prolific career. Studying at the Liverpool School of Art from
1917’21, she received a Royal Exhibition Scholarship and
attended the Royal College of Art for four years ‘ alongside Henry
Moore (1898’1986), Raymond Coxon (1896’1997) and Edna
Ginesi (1902’2000), with whom she would remain friends for the
rest of her life ‘ winning the Drawing Prize in her final year.
From 1925 to 1930 she taught part-time at Walthamstow
Technical College. In 1928, she married the artist Douglas
Percy Bliss (1900’1984) and they worked alongside each other,
exhibiting together at Derby Art Gallery in 1947. She also
exhibited at the NEAC, the RA, the RP, the Walker Art Gallery
and the RSA, and in 1989 the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle
University held a large retrospective exhibition to celebrate her
ninetieth birthday.
