Frank Dobson CBE RA

1886 - 1963

Frank Dobson was born in London, the son of a greeting card designer, who died when he was 14, when he went to live with an aunt in Hastings, attending evening classes at the School of Art, and was then apprenticed to the painter and sculptor Sir William Reynolds-Stephens. Dobson moved to Cornwall, where he painted and sold landscape paintings for a living, before going to Arbroath to study at the Hospitalfield House Arts Institute for four years, before going to the City and Guilds Art School in Kennington. With the help of Augustus John, Dobson exhibited at the Chenil Gallery in 1914, and the next year he made his first sculpture. Service in the Artists Rifles in World War I followed, and an official commission to paint a barrage balloon. In 1920, Dobson met Wyndham Lewis and that year exhibited at the Mansard Gallery, in Heal's Department Store, with Lewis's Group X. In 1921, Dobson had his first solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries. In 1922, Dobson met the sculptor Aristide Maillol and took in an exhibition of Women Bathers by Picasso, both experiences that had a lasting impact on his work. Also in 1922, he joined the London Group, which also showed at the Mansard Gallery, and included former Vorticists and Group X members, as well as Bloomsbury artists like Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and was its President from 1923-27. In the inter-war years, Dobson developed his practice as a sculptor and carver and began to exhibit ... show more

Frank Dobson was born in London, the son of a greeting card designer, who died when he was 14, when he went to live with an aunt in Hastings, attending evening classes at the School of Art, and was then apprenticed to the painter and sculptor Sir William Reynolds-Stephens. Dobson moved to Cornwall, where he painted and sold landscape paintings for a living, before going to Arbroath to study at the Hospitalfield House Arts Institute for four years, before going to the City and Guilds Art School in Kennington. With the help of Augustus John, Dobson exhibited at the Chenil Gallery in 1914, and the next year he made his first sculpture. Service in the Artists Rifles in World War I followed, and an official commission to paint a barrage balloon. In 1920, Dobson met Wyndham Lewis and that year exhibited at the Mansard Gallery, in Heal's Department Store, with Lewis's Group X. In 1921, Dobson had his first solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries. In 1922, Dobson met the sculptor Aristide Maillol and took in an exhibition of Women Bathers by Picasso, both experiences that had a lasting impact on his work. Also in 1922, he joined the London Group, which also showed at the Mansard Gallery, and included former Vorticists and Group X members, as well as Bloomsbury artists like Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and was its President from 1923-27. In the inter-war years, Dobson developed his practice as a sculptor and carver and began to exhibit

internationally. Despite an arm break that restricted his carving, he became feted as one of the world's leading sculptors and was appointed head of sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 1946. Although his widow destroyed much of his work left in the studio after his death, Dobson left a considerable body of drawings, many of them studies of the nude.