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PHYLLIS DODD - FORGOTTEN DERBYSHIRE ARTIST

One of our expanding themes at You and Yesterday is 'artists with Derbyshire connections'. One such personality is the much-neglected portrait painter Phyllis Dodd, who for many years lived with her artist husband Douglas Percy Bliss at Windley. Here Peter Seddon offers a short appraisal of her life and work.

The highly-accomplished portrait painter Phyllis Dodd (1899-1995) married fellow artist Douglas Percy Bliss (1900-1984) in 1928, but chose to continue painting under her maiden name.

Although neither were born in Derbyshire, they ultimately adopted the county as 'home' and lived at Hillside Cottage, Windley, from 1943 until the end of their lives.

Douglas Bliss features on You and Yesterday in his own right, and is the better documented of the two artists. Yet when referring to his wife in an interview he modestly said in all seriousness 'she's the talented one'.

With that in mind here is a short tribute.

Phyllis Dodd was born in Chester in 1899 and attended Liverpool City School of Art from 1918-21. In 1921 she won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London.

There she mixed with a hugely talented intake of that 'golden era' which included Barbara Hepworth, Edward Burra, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Henry Moore, and husband-to-be Douglas Bliss. All were to make a significant impact on British art, yet Phyllis was considered their equal - indeed her tutor at the Royal described her as 'one of the most talented students I have'.

She was also considered quite a beauty, taking the eye of Douglas Bliss in particular - the couple were married in 1928.

Phyllis Dodd's speciality was in portrait commissions, and that to a great extent explains her lack of 'celebrity' as a 'popular' artist, for most of her canvasses were painted simply as fee-earners.

She executed countless fine portraits of judges, provosts, bishops, professors, company directors and the like - many hang today in board rooms, universities, colleges and other institutions rather than public galleries.

Three of her more widely-exposed pictures were done in the late 1920s, the subjects being her former fellow students at the Royal College of Art - by then the successful artists Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, and husband Douglas Bliss. Each is shown below as a fine example of her accomplished brushwork and her innate ability to capture character in her sitters.

Phyllis Dodd continued to paint throughout her life despite the usual demands of bringing up a family - her two daughters were Rosalind and Prudence, both of whom inherited their parents artistic flair.

Even after her husband died in 1984 Phyllis continued working into her middle eighties - one particularly fine work from this later period was her 1986 portrait of Godfrey Meynell depicted outside his home at Meynell Langley.

Phyllis Dodd ARCA died in 1995 at the age of 96 - a Derbyshire-based artist who deserves far greater recognition than she has generally been allotted.

• Artists With Derbyshire Connections

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