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Dod Procter , English, 1890-1972

Title

Baby in Long Clothes

Date1927

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

47 x 89.9 cm

Signedlower right (in green paint): Dod Procter

Credit LinePurchased, 2015

Object numberNGI.2015.21

ProvenanceMessum's Fine Art, London, 1988; purchased, private collector, New Orleans; Neal Auction Company, New Orleans, 22 November 2014, lot 623; acquired by David Powell Fine Art, UK; purchased, David Powell Fine Art, London, 2015Exhibition 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]
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.