Frank Dobson

Torso

1933

© The estate of Frank Dobson

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Not on display

Artist: Frank Dobson 1888–1963
Medium: Portland stone
Dimensions: Object: 673 x 203 x 203 mm, 32.6 kg
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1948
Reference: N05874

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Dobson always looked to the human form, mostly naked and female, for his source material, and always worked from life. He began his artistic career in 1914 as a painter and it was only around 1919 that he turned his attention to sculpture. Torso, with its simplified form and flowing lines, was no doubt the result of his study of ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, Peruvian and African art in the British Museum, and his interest in the principles of Cubism. These were the key influences that first inspired him to make sculpture.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

N05874 TORSO 1933

Not inscribed.
Portland stone, 26 1/2×8×8 (67×20×20), including base.
Purchased from the Leicester Galleries (Knapping Fund) 1948.
Coll: Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill; Leicester Galleries.
Exh: Leicester Galleries, April–May 1935 (20).
Repr: Stanley Casson, Artists at Work, 1933, p.32; Earp, 1945, pl.14.

Made in 1933, one of several torsos dating from between 1930 and 1935.

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