Frances Catharine Dodgson (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Spooner; 15 December 1883 – 30 April 1954) was a British artist, known for her skill as a portraitist.

Biography

Dodgson was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. Her parents were Frances Wycliffe, who was the daughter of a bishop, and the academic William Spooner who became the warden of

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

and known for his

spoonerisms A spoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and priest William Archibald Spooner, who reporte ...

. Dodgson enrolled in the

Ruskin School of Drawing The Ruskin School of Art is the Department of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin School of Art grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later ...

in Oxford at the age of 15 and went on to study at the

Royal Academy Schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in London and also briefly at the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

. In 1913 she married the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Campbell Dodgson Campbell Dodgson (13 August 1867 – 11 July 1948) was a British art historian and museum curator. He was the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum in 1912–32. Biography Student Campbell Dodgson was the eighth and last child of ...

. Dodgson did not develop her own art until the early 1930s. From 1933 to 1945 she exhibited regularly at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in London. She exhibited mainly portrait pieces, including one of her husband in 1933 and then of Dean Inge and Sir Thomas Barlow in subsequent years. Two solo exhibitions of Dodgson's work were held at Colnaghis' Gallery in London, in 1936 and 1939. Dodgson refused several offers of portrait commissions, preferring to ask friends and family members to sit for her. Later she made a series of drawings of dancers at the Covent Garden Opera and some landscape sketches of

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

in London. A memorial exhibition for Dodgson was held at Colnaghis' Gallery during October and November 1954. Both the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London, the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

in Cambridge and the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

hold examples of her drawings.

has portraits by her of

Herbert Hall Turner Herbert Hall Turner (13 August 1861 – 20 August 1930) was a British astronomer and seismologist. Biography Herbert Hall Turner was educated at the Leeds Modern School, Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1884 he ...

and

H. A. L. Fisher Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher H.A.L. Fisher: ''A History of Europe, Volume II: From the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century to 1935'', Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, 1984, p. i. (21 March 1865 – 18 April 1940) was an English historian, educator, a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodgson, Catharine 1883 births 1954 deaths 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools Alumni of the Ruskin School of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from Oxford