Frank Owen Dobson RA
Born 18 November 1886
Died 22 July 1963
Active: 1921 - 1953
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, painter
Born London. Studied at Leyton School of Art 1900-1902; studio assistant with Sir William Reynolds-Stephens 1902-04; Hospitalfield Art Institute, Arbroath 1906-10; City and Guilds Institute, London 1910-12. First solo exhibition Chenil Galleries, Chelsea 1911. Army service in Artists’ Rifles 1914-18. Early advocate of ‘direct carving’ in 1920s. Represented Britain at Venice Biennale 1924 and 1932. Official War Artist in World War II. Terra cotta sculpture after 1945. Professor of Sculpture at Royal College of Art 1946-53. A.R.A. 1942. R.A. 1953. C.B.E. 1953. Died at the Princess Beatrice Hospital in Kensington, London.
Commissions include: Woman and fish and London Pride for Festival of Britain 1951.
Exhibitions include : LCC 1948, 57; SB 1951; Leicester Galleries 1954 (solo); Sculpture in the Home, Arts Council series of touring exhibitions (1946 and subsequent shows); Middelheim Vth Biennale, Antwerp 1959.
Collections include: Tate Gallery; Arts Council; Leeds City Art Galleries; University of Hull.
Further reading: N. Jason and L. Thompson-Pharoah, The Sculpture of Frank Dobson, (London : The Henry Moore Foundation and Lund Humphries, 1994).
T.W. Earp, Frank Dobson Sculptor, (A. Tiranti, 1945).
R. Mortimer, Frank Dobson, (Fleuron Press Ltd., 1926).
A. Whittick, ‘Bainbridge Copnall’, in Commemorative Art, July 1965.
B. Read and P. Skipwith, Sculpture in Britain between the Wars, The Fine Art Society, London, 10 June – 1 August 1986, (exh. cat.).
Biography from Whiteley (2001) with additional information from Jason (2004)
Wealth at death: £2,532 3s. 11d.
Probate date: 5 December 1963
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Working drawing for 'The Man Child'
Robin, Son of Sir Archibald Sinclair
Charles, son of George Kennedy, Esq.
Study of Head for 'Cornucopia'
Seated nude
1954 (Circa)
Morning
1926 (Presumed)
£136 10s.
The garden, II Castello, Portofino
1927 (Circa)
Torso
1929 (Circa)
Figure
1932 (Circa)
Rhodda
1932 (Circa)
Lady Dorothea Ashley Cooper
1935 (Circa)
Jeanne de Casalis
1935 (Presumed)
Cedric Morris
1935 (Presumed)
Head
1935 (Presumed)
Girl's Head
1935 (Presumed)
Rhodda
1935 (Presumed)
Noon
1937 (Circa)
Romantic
1937 (Circa)
Untitled
1937 (Circa)
Mary
1938 (Circa)
The bather
1938 (Circa)
Nude
1938 (Circa)
Madame Lopokova
1944 (Circa)
Margaret Rawlings
1948 (Circa)
Locations
Address The Straits Kingsley Borden | View on map
1942 (Circa) - 1945 (Circa)
Address 14 Harley Gardens London SW10 | View on map
1946 (Circa) - 1958 (Circa)
Studio located at 15 Trafalgar Studios Manresa Road London SW3 | View on map
1933 (Circa) - 1936 (Circa)
Studio located at 14 Trafalgar Studios Manresa Road London | View on map
1939 (Circa)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at Frank Dobson, Sculpture and Drawings (Leicester Galleries), 1921
Multiple works
Exhibited at London Artists Association. Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Bernard Adeney, Keith Baynes, Vanessa Bell, Frank Dobson, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant and F. J. Porter (Leicester Galleries), 1926
Multiple works
Exhibited at An Exhibition of Sculpture and Drawings by Frank Dobson (Leicester Galleries), 1927
Multiple works
Exhibited at Second Exhibition of The London Artists' Association (Leicester Galleries), 1927
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Third, 1929
'Torso'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, One-Hundred-and-Eighteenth, 1944
'Madame Lopokova'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-First, 1927
'The garden, II Castello, Portofino'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Sixth, 1932
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Ninth, 1935
'Lady Dorothea Ashley Cooper'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Eleventh, 1937
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Twelfth, 1938
'Mary'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Second, 1948
'Margaret Rawlings'
Exhibited at Aberdeen Artists' Society Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, 1937
Multiple works
Exhibited at Sculpture by Frank Dobson (Leicester Galleries), 1930
Exhibited at London Group Exhibition, 1914-1939
1922 - 1930
Exhibited 6 times, an average of three works per show
Exhibited at Art Exhibitions of the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales. Loan Collections at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, 1926
26 July 1926 - 12 August 1926
Exhibited at Exhibition of Modern Paintings and Sculpture lent by The Corporation of Manchester, Rutherston Loan Scheme (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), 1929
16 September 1929 - 7 December 1929
Exhibited two sculptures in bronze; the works are undated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 3 (14-15).
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1933 - 1958
Exhibited 21 times (14 times up to 1951), over ninety works in all (work also shown posthumously in 1964)
Exhibited at Contemporary Welsh Art (National Museum of Wales), 1935
October 1935 - 30 November 1935
Also had paintings in the exhibition.
Exhibited at Contemporary Welsh Art (Swansea), 1935
12 September 1935 - 3 October 1935
Exhibited at The Frank Dobson Exhibition. (Leicester Galleries), 1935
April 1935
Exhibited at Sculpture and drawings by Frank Dobson, ARA (Leicester Galleries), 1944
February 1944
Exhibited at Festival of Britain, London: Ten Decades, a Review of British Taste, 1851-1951, 1951
1951
The Arts Council lent Dobson's life size bronze entitled 'Lydia Lopokhova' (1926) to the show.
Selection committee member of The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The One Hundred and Seventy-Fourth (Summer Exhibition), 1942.
8 April 1942 - 15 April 1942
Served on the Selection Committee, and was responsible for the arrangement of sculpture. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1942', (1943), p. 24.
Selection committee member of Chantrey Bequest (Chantrey Fund; Royal Academy of Arts), 1875-1948
1943 - 1944
Served on the Recommending Committee in 1943 and 1944 (Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1943', 1944, p. 16).
Selection committee member of The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The One Hundred and Seventy-Ninth (Summer Exhibition), 1947
7 April 1947 - 14 April 1947
Served on the Selection Committee, and was responsible for the arrangement of sculpture. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1947' (1948), p. 23.
Speaker at Brancusi and Abstractionist Sculpture (Art Workers Guild), 1929
Institutional and Business Connections
Elected ARA Royal Academy of Arts
17 March 1942
Elected RA in 1953.
Elected RA Royal Academy of Arts
15 April 1953 - 22 July 1963
Died in 1963. According to the RA laws, he should have been made a Senior RA on 31 December 1961, but there are no records to that effect.
Member of London Group
1922 - 1930 (Presumed)
Member of council Royal Academy of Arts
1952 - 1953
Served as one of two Associate Members of the Council from 1952 to 1953. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report, 1951', (1952), p. 32.
President of London Group
1924 - 1926
Professor of sculpture at Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School)
1946 - 1953
First listed as Professor of Sculpture in the College's 1946-1947 prospectus.
Personal and Professional Connections
Apprenticed to William Ernest Reynolds-Stephens
1900 (Circa)
Aged about 14, Dobson answered an advertisement placed by Reynolds-Stephens for a 'studio boy'. His jobs were to polish the studio floor, light the fire and assist two other assistants. They were working on a bronze screen for a church in Essex. This was probably the screen for St. Mary the Virgin, Great Warley, Essex. [see 'The Sculpture of Frank Dobson', pp. 16-17]
Nominated by Henry Bishop
2 December 1933
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by William McMillan
2 December 1933 - March 1941
Two nominations for Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA], in 1933 and 1941.
Nominated by Gilbert Ledward
2 December 1933
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by Thomas Monnington
2 December 1933
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by Henry George Rushbury
2 December 1933
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by Gerald Kelly
2 December 1933
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by George Harcourt
2 December 1933
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by Charles Thomas Wheeler
March 1941
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by Francis Dodd
March 1941
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by Arnold Mason
March 1941
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominated by Edward Brantwood Maufe
March 1941
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominator of Siegfried Joseph Charoux
April 1943
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominator of David McFall
27 April 1945
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominator of Arnold Machin
25 March 1946
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA].
Nominator of Edward Charles N. Folkard
13 June 1950
For Associate of the Royal Academy [ARA]; unsuccessful.
Studied under William Ernest Reynolds-Stephens
1902
See H. Cunliffe-Charlesworth 'The Royal College of Art' PhD thesis,(1991), vol. 3, appendix C, p. 589. No source is given.
Teacher to Stephen Tomlin
In the early 1920s. They remained friends after the formal connection ended.
Teacher to (Arthur) John Bridgeman
1945 (Circa) - 1949 (Circa)
Sources
Art Workers Guild Annual Reports, 1913-1933
1929, p.8.
Artists' Papers Register
2007
http://www.apr.ac.uk/artists/searches/artistrecs.asp?ARID=GB/NNAF/P42119
Site accessed 20 March 2008
Catalogue of a Temporary Exhibition. Contemporary Welsh Art
1935
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Sculpture and Drawings by Frank Dobson
1927
Catalogue of Contemporary Welsh Art Exhibition, Swansea
1935
Directory of sculptors working and exhibiting in Britain in the 1950s, by Gillian Whiteley
2001
p. 11
Ernest Brown & Phillips Ltd., The Leicester Galleries. An index of 1422 catalogues of exhibitions of European Modern Art and 20th Century British Art, held between 1902 and 1977
http://www.ernestbrownandphillips.ltd.uk (accessed 17 July 2019)
I. Albert Rutherston, Paintings, II. Jean François Millet, Drawings and Studies, Frank Dobson, Sculpture and Drawings
1921
pp.19-26.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Neville Jason, 'Dobson, Frank Owen (1886-1963)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32844, accessed 20 March 2008]
Prospectus of the Royal College of Art, 1947-1948 Royal College of Art
1947
Unpaged staff list.
Prospectus of the Royal College of Art, South Kensington, London, 1946-1947 Royal College of Art Prospectuses
1946
Unpaged staff list.
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, 1927-1938
1938
p.203.
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, c.1939-c.1961
1961 (Circa)
p.59, p.157, pp.181-182, p.232.
Royal College of Art Calendar, 1951-1952 Royal College of Art
1951
p. 8.
The London Group 1913-1939: The artists and their works
1995
p. 68
The Royal College of Art: Its Influences on Education, Art and Design 1900-1950, 1991 Royal College of Art
August 1991
p. 589.
The Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales. Catalogue of the Art Loan Exhibition 1926
1926
Citing this record
'Frank Owen Dobson RA', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1206746936, accessed 01 Oct 2023]
