Frank Dobson (1886 - 1963)

Sculptor, draughtsman and painter in oil and watercolour. Born in London, the son of an artist with whom he initially studied, Dobson first attended Leyton School of Art, 1900-2, was an apprentice studio boy with then sculptor Sir William Reynolds-Stephens, 1902-4. After a time in Cornwall was, 1906-10, at Hospitalfield Art Institute, Arbroath, finally attending the City and Guilds School, Kennington, 1910-12. Although he made his first wood-carving just before World War I, Dobson's first one-man show, at the Chenil Galleries, 1914, was of paintings and drawings. During World War I enlisted in Artists' Rifles and continued working, Imperial War Museum acquiring his large oil The Balloon Apron. After the war Dobson met Wyndham Lewis and exhibited with Group X in 1920; had a first one-man show as a sculptor at Leicester Galleries, 1921. First sculptures were very stylised, but later work influenced by the work of Aristide Maillol. During