William Dobson
Endymion Porter (c.1642–5)
Tate
William Dobson is the most distinguished native painter ‘in large’ before the advent of Hogarth. It is the first occasion on which he has been honoured with a one-man exhibition. There are some unfortunate omissions, but the canvases which have been assembled illustrate fairly clearly the remarkably high quality and the striking individuality of the young painter who was described by a contemporary as ‘the most excellent painter that England hath yet bred’.
His portraits are quite unmistakable and are wholly sincere. It is that which makes them such invaluable documents for the Civil War. For all their swagger against their stormy background, many of his sitters have a look of anguish. And beneath even the most cheerful countenance there is a sense of grief and uncertainty lurking below the surface. It is a piece of great good fortune that a painter of Dobson’s abilities and sensitivity should have been present to record the men and women who lived through those tortured times when ‘Bellona thundered’.
Oliver Millar
