Frank Dobson

Margaret Rawlings

1937

© The estate of Frank Dobson

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Not on display

Artist: Frank Dobson 1888–1963
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: Object: 571 x 559 x 546 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented anonymously 1937
Reference: N05028

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This bust of the actress Margaret Rawlings is one of several commissioned portraits made by Dobson throughout his career. In the 1920s Dobson was regarded as an avant-garde sculptor. He was a leading member of the London Group, and his works, which were influenced by Cubism and primitive art, were praised by Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury circle of intellectuals. In the 1930s, however, his reputation as an innovatory artist declined as his work became increasingly neo-classical, and close in spirit to the overtly more traditional French sculptors, Maillol and Despiau. This portrait study has an expressive and informal quality reminiscent of the 'Mediterranean' mood of many of Maillol's nudes.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

N05028 MARGARET RAWLINGS 1937

Inscr. ‘Dobson’ on back.
Bronze, 22 1/2×22×21 1/2 (57×56×55).
Presented by an anonymous donor 1937.
Exh: R.A., 1936 (1575).
Repr: Apollo, XXIV, 1936, p.48; Earp, 1945, pl.27.

Other casts of the bronze are at Manchester and Leeds. Margaret Rawlings (Lady Barlow), b. 1906, actress, made her first stage appearance in Charles Macdona's Shaw Repertory Company in 1927. She married Sir Robert Barlow in 1942.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I