Young Roman
Having showed early artistic talent Dod was taken in 1907 by her mother to Stanhope Forbes' (1857-1947) School of Painting in Newlyn. Walter Langley (1852-1922) and Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854- 1931) were amongst other artists settled there. Like her contemporaries Procter was attracted by the 'plein air' approach to painting. She came to regard oil as her best medium, giving up the use of watercolour by c.1920. From 1910 she studied in Paris where she met Ernest Procter (1886-1935), whom she later married. Together they travelled widely and undertook mural commissions. Dod exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy and the New English Art Club. She returned to Newlyn after Ernest's death and became a local celebrity. Procter's major talent was in her single figure paintings in oil, executed in a simple yet unconventional style. Her concerns were with form, weight and the fall of light upon her subjects. She became known for her portraits of children and young women and is said to have made truly 'feminine art.' Her sitter in Young Roman, poised between boyhood and adulthood, is unknown. The cool, Mediterranean feel of the portrait suggests it could have been painted during the Procters' travels, although the setting also evokes the simple, light interior of their Newlyn home. Its pure, classical semi-profile pose also hints at Renaissance portraiture.
