William Dobson: Artist of the Civil War


Fascinating exhibition at Tate Britain looking at the work of William Dobson, the successor of Van Dyck as the court artist.

Dobson was unfortunate to become the court artist just as the Civil War was about the break out so he moved with the king to Oxford and painted the Royalists in exile there. The show focused in particular on how his technique changed in this period due to lack of materials and shorter sittings.

The show contrasted early and later works.  His early style had been to paint the whole work in muted colours then to add more naturalistic colour and the fine detail. There was a beautiful self-portrait from this period shown with a portrait of his wife. The later works missed out on the under painting but benefited from the shorter sittings as his brush work become looser and more expressive.

I loved a picture of Endymion Porter based on a Titian owned by Charles I, which was appropriate as Porter was his art expert and had probably sourced the Titian for Charles! It included a beautiful dog shown here, Dobson was an excellent painter of dogs which I always appreciate!

Closes on 28 April 2019

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