Francis Dodd 1920-23

MAFA President 1920-1923

Francis Dodd was an etcher and painter of realistic portraits, landscapes and genre. He was born in Anglesey, Wales, the son of a Wesleyan minister. He trained at the Glasgow School of Art alongside Muirhead Bone, who married Dodd’s sister Gertrude Helena Dodd. After studying, he visited Paris, Italy and later Spain before settling in Manchester in 1895. Dodd moved to London during 1904 and also became a member of the New English Art Club.

During the First World War, Francis was appointed an official war artist. Serving on the Western Front, he produced more than 30 portraits of senior military figures, some of which are housed at the Imperial War Museum. However, he also earned a considerable peacetime reputation for the quality of his watercolours and portraits. He was appointed a trustee of the Tate Gallery in 1929, a position he held for six years, and was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1927 and a full Member in 1935. From 1911 Dodd lived at Arundel House in Blackheath, London, until he took his own life in 1949.

See some portraits by Francis Dodd.