Dod Procter, English, 1890-1972
Title: Baby in Long Clothes
Date: 1927
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
47 x 89.9 cm
Signed: lower right (in green paint): Dod Procter
Credit Line: Purchased, 2015
Object Number: NGI.2015.21
ProvenanceMessum's Fine Art, London, 1988; purchased, Private Collector, New Orleans; Neal Auction Company, New Orlean, 22 November 2014, Lot 623; acquired by David Powell Fine Art, UK; purchased, David Powell Fine Art, London, 2015
Exhibition HistoryPaintings by Ernest and Dod Procter, The Leicester Galleries, London, 1927
Carnegie International Exhibition, Chicago, 19 March - 21 April 1929, no.107
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 217
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1931, no.95
Newlyn Society of Artists Exhibition, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1942
Bridgwater Art Centre, Bridgwater, Somerset, 1947, Arts Council of Great Britain [Exhibition of works by West Country Artists]
Carnegie International Exhibition, Chicago, 19 March - 21 April 1929, no.107
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 217
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1931, no.95
Newlyn Society of Artists Exhibition, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1942
Bridgwater Art Centre, Bridgwater, Somerset, 1947, Arts Council of Great Britain [Exhibition of works by West Country Artists]
Label TextProcter trained in Newlyn, Cornwall and at the Académie Colarossi, Paris. During the 1920s, she became one of the best-known artists in Britain due to her depictions of women and children. Here, Procter portrays a wide-eyed baby with stark realism. The cool colouring enhances the sculptural appearance of the child and its garments. Contemporary critics were positive, if a little unnerved by the picture. One admired the ‘arresting’ composition, while remarking upon its ‘almost frightening unsentimentality.’ It was, at the time, unexpected for a woman artist to paint such a detached image of infancy.