Francis H. Dodd

Maas Gallery, London, where purchased by the late owner, 1961

London, Maas Gallery, Pre-Raphaelites to Post Impressionists: Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolours, 3rd - 21st May 1965, cat. no.39;
London, Tate, The Art of Bloomsbury: Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant,  4th November 1999 - 30th January 2000, cat. no.160, with tour to The Huntington, San Marino, and Yale Center for British Art, New Haven;
New York, The Grolier Club, The Grolier Club Collects: Books, Manuscripts, & Works on Paper From the Collections of Grolier Club Members, 10th December 2002 - 1st February 2003, un-numbered exhibition, illustrated p.65.

The sheet is partially laid down, affixed onto a supporting card with two tabs attached to the underside of the sheet at the upper edge. When viewed out of the mount there is some evidence of fading to the sheet. The sheet has a slightly uneven edge, most likely inkeeping with the artist's working method.There is a tiny abrasion to the left of the parting of the hair. There is some very minor surface dirt, most apparent towards the lower and upper horizontal edges, visible only when viewed unmounted. The charcoal appears strong and stable and, subject to the above, the work appears to be in good condition. The work is framed and glazed, window mounted and housed in a painted wood and plaster frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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We are grateful to Richard Shone for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

Francis Dodd was a painter, etcher, a member of the New English Art Club and a trustee of the Tate Gallery (1928-35). He was introduced to the Stephen family and Clive and Vanessa Bell by the painter Henry Lamb. Between autumn 1907 and summer 1908, he made at least three drawings of Virginia Stephen (who became Virginia Woolf in 1912), preparatory to an etching of her, although originally he had asked the sitter if he could paint her portrait (see letter from Virginia Stephen to Violet Dickinson, 3^rd June 1907, in  N. Nicolson and J. Troutmann, The Letters of Virginia Woolf, vol. 1). Dodd’s studio was at 13 Fitzroy Street, a short walk to Virginia Stephen’s house in Fitzroy Square where the sittings took place. One of the resulting drawings is in the National Portrait Gallery and another was in the collection of Benjamin Sonnenberg, New York. Although none is a satisfactory likeness, the drawings are valuable as the only extant portraits of the writer in the years she was working on her first novel The Voyage Out (1915) and until Duncan Grant’s painting of her of 1911 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).