Frances Catharine Dodgson, née 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 in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. 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 and known for his

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

. Dodgson enrolled in the

Ruskin School of Drawing The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

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 on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

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 public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Campbell Dodgson Campbell Dodgson, CBE DLitt Hon RE (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 ...

. Dodgson did not develop her own art until the early 1930s. From 1933 to 1945 she exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy 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 The Royal Opera is a British opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Cov ...

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 of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

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 (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London, the Ashmolean Museum 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 lan ...

hold examples of her drawings. New College, Oxford 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.

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