The Sunday Shirt, ca. 1957

Dod Procter RA (1891 - 1972)

RA Collection: Art

Following the death of her husband Ernest in 1935, Dod Procter began to travel widely. She visited Jamaica four times, in the winters of 1953, 1956, 1958 and 1961. During these trips Procter painted many portraits of West Indian children including ‘The Sunday Shirt'.

Born in London as Doris Margaret Shaw (1891-1972), Dod Procter spent her early years in Devon and then Newlyn, Cornwall where she studied painting under Stanhope Forbes (1907-8). During this time she met her future husband Ernest Procter (1886-1935) and her friend Laura Knight. She went on to train at the Atelier Colarossi, Paris from 1910-1911 where Ernest had been a student. The couple married in 1912. In 1919 they spent a year in Rangoon, Burma, painting murals commissioned for the Kokine Palace in Rangoon.

By 1923 the couple was living at North Corner, a cottage in Newlyn. It was around this time that she began exhibiting under the name “Dod”. Although she continued to paint flowerpieces and still-lifes throughout her career, in the early 1920s Proctor turned her focus to painting young women. In 1927 her painting ‘Morning’ (Tate) was voted the picture of the year at the RA. It was bought for the nation by the Daily Mail but before being presented to the Tate was toured around 23 regional galleries, sent on show to New York and displayed on the Cunard Company liners, which transported it there.

From the 1930s Procter began to travel widely and found new subjects for her work abroad. Among trips were Canada and America (1936); the Canary Islands (1938, 1946); Tenerife (1938, 1939); Africa (1948) and Jamaica (1953, 1956 ,1958, 1961). Her friend, the painter Alethea Garstin (1894-1978) joined her on many of these trips.

Procter joined the New English Art Club in 1929 and exhibited with them until 1932. She also exhibited at the Leicester Galleries (1932, 1942, 1945). She was a regular contributor to the Carnegie Institute's International Exhibitions at Pittsburgh and in 1935 showed at the Carl Fischer Gallery in New York.

She was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1934 and a Royal Academician in 1942.