Name Cowan Dobson Role Artist | Died 1980 | |
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David Cowan Dobson (1894–1980), referred to as 'Cowan' Dobson ARBA (1919), RBA (1922), was a leading Scottish portrait artist.
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Family
David Cowan Dobson was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, the second son of the Scottish portrait painter Henry John Dobson (1858–1928), from Dalry who had painted in 1893 Labour leader James Keir Hardie (1856–1915), and Jeannie Charlotte Hannah Cowan. David's middle name which he used professionally derives from his mother’s maiden name. His grandfather, Thomas Dobson, was a wool merchant in the village of Kirkcudbright. It is said in the family that there was a Dobson wool mill in Dalry, owned and run by Thomas. Henry John did not maintain the family tradition of running the family wool business, and instead became an artist. It would appear he paid a price for his choice. Family legend has it that Thomas Dobson disowned his son. Henry John’s whole life would be marked by financial difficulties.
The oldest child of the Dobson family was Thomas Stanley Dobson, born in 1892 and named after his grandfather. He was known as Stanley Dobson, and became an actor. But to make ends meet, Stanley also worked for art dealer Robertson in London.
The only sister was Louisa Rankin Dobson (b. 1896), and was known as Louie. She had an intense family bond with her brothers, but mainly with her younger brother and fourth child, Henry Raeburn Dobson (1901-1985), for whom she cared her lifelong. He was named after the famous eighteenth-century Scottish portrait painter, Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823), whom his father admired hugely. Henry Raeburn Dobson became a leading society portrait painter in Edinburgh and Brussels (Belgium).
Life and work
Although he painted some fine portraits of well known men, like Earl Attlee, Earl Beatty and Harold Wilson, he also often portrayed “fashionable London ladies”. Cowan was married to Phyllis Bowyer, who was the brains behind his financial success. She made Cowan one of London's leading society portrait painters. She herself sat for the famous photographer Alexander Bassano, the resulting portrait now being at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Cowan Dobson started his career in Scotland. In 1918 he was using his father’s studio at Dalry. Around 1920 he moved to London and from then on he worked and resided mainly in London. Occasionally, he would work in and around Glasgow. He is said to have rented Kenmure Castle, in New Galloway, Kirkcudbrightshire, in the 1930s and 1940s to entertain and paint fashionable sitters.
He mainly worked in oils but also painted some fine water-colour scenes. He painted in the tradition of the academic nineteenth century with mostly a rather darker colour scheme, while his brother Henry, influenced by the Modernist Movement in Edinburgh, painted more colourful portraits.
He became an Official War Painter and made portraits of many holders of the Victoria Cross. Dobson painted three portraits of Royal Air Force V.C.’s for the R.A.F., today held in a section of the Imperial War Museum in London. These include Lt. Col. L.W. Brabazon Rees, Sgt Mottershead and Flight Lt.A.W. Beauchamps-Proctor.
His works were widely exhibited, including the Royal Academy, Royal Society of Arts, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Society of Water-colourers, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Cambrian Academy, Fine Art Society, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Some works
33 of his other portraits are held in various galleries etc.