Cowan Dobson

David Cowan Dobson (1894 – 1980), referred to as 'Cowan' Dobson ARBA (1919), RBA (1922), was a leading Scottish portrait artist who mainly worked in London. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1894, as son of the Scottish and rather unsuccessful genre and portrait painter Henry John DOBSON (1858-1928) who painted Labour leader James Keir Hardie (1856 – 1915) in 1893 and of Jeannie Charlotte Hannah COWAN

Family

David Cowan Dobson was born as the second child into a not so well-to-do middle class family with roots in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. The name COWAN was given to David after his mother’s family name. He married Phyllis BOWYER, who became the commercial and financial brain behind the painter. They resided in London.

His father, Henry John Dobson (1858-1928)10, was himself a Scottish genre and portrait painter from Dalry. 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. Maybe this mill was owned and run by Thomas.

Henry John did not keep the family tradition of running the family wool business, in order to become a painter. 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.

David Cowan was the second child, known as 'Cowan' Dobson.

The only sister was Louisa Rankin Dobson. She was born in 1896 and was known as Louie. She had an intense family bond with her brothers, but mainly with her younger brother Henry Raeburn, for whom she cared her life long.

The fourth child was Henry Raeburn Dobson (1901-1985). He was named after the famous eighteenth century Scottish portrait painter, Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), who his father admired hugely. Henry Raeburn Dobson (1901-1985), became a leading society portrait painter in Edinburgh and Brussels (Belgium).

His Life and Work

Although he painted some very fine portraits of well known men, like Earl Attlee, Earl Beatty and Harold Wilson, he mainly portrayed “fashionable London ladies”. Cowan was married to Phyllis Bowyer, who was the brain behind the painter's finincial success. She made sure Cowan became one of London's leading society portrait painters. She 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 Cumbria New Galloway, in the 1930s and 1940s to entertain and paint fashionable sitters. But this cannot be documented.

He mainly worked in oils but also painted some fine watercolour scenes. He painted in the tradition of the academic ninenteenth century with mostly a rather darker colour scheme, while his brother Henry, influenced by the Modernist Movement in Edinburgh, painted more colourfull portraits.

He became an official War Painter and made portraits of many VC's ^[1].

His works were widely exhibited, including the Royal Academy, Royal Society of Arts, Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Society of Watercolourers, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Cambrian Academy, Fine Art Society, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

Some Work

His works include:

• The Farmer (1915) 51 x 61 inches
• Harry Lauder (1915) 62 x 44 inches. (In the possession of the family.)
• Captain John Lauder, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (1915) 87 x 50 inches.(Family.)
• Portrait of a young lady (head & shoulders) (1918) 38 x 48 inches
• The New Toy (1918) 59.5 x 74 cm
• Lady Lauder (1921) (wife of Sir Harry Lauder) 50 x 40 inches. (Family.)
• After the Ball (1922) 102 x 76 cm.
• Portrait of a girl with a Rag Doll (1927) 127 x 76 cm
• Portrait of a Huntsman (1930) 61 x 51 inches
• Admiral Lord Beatty in full evening dress (1930) 65 x 52 inches (last sold at Burnt Oak Auctions, Woking, Surrey, 24/9/1988).
• Girl in a Green Turban (1932) 15.4 x 9.3 inches (Sothebys, London, 12/10/1988).
• Roses in a bowl on a circular table (1938) (Hall’s Welsh Bridge Salerooms, UK, 16/6/2006)
• Reclining nude 50.8 x 66 inches (Christies, South Kensington, London, 11/3/2004).
• On a sandy beach 50 x 40.2 inches (Sothebys, London, 28/8/1990).
• Moll Flanders (1954) 76 x 63.5 cm/ 30 x 25 inches
• Clement Attlee (1956)
• Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax (died 27/12/1964)
• The Duke of Argyll
• Sir John Black 61 x 51 inches.
• Mrs Cowan Dobson 95 x 74.7 cm
• The Countess of Weir 128 x 101.5 cm.

Footnotes

1. ^ Imperial War Museum Archives, cat. ART/WA1/99/120, dd. 26.10.1918-08.11.1938. Cowan Dobson painted 3 portraits of R.A.F. V.C.’s for the R.A.F. Section of the Imperial War Museum in London : Lt. Col. L.W. Brabazon Rees, Sgt Mottershead and Flight Lt.A.W. Beauchamps-Proctor

References

• National Portrait Gallery London : Heinz Archive and Library, Henry Raeburn Dobson Files
• Imperial War Museum, London
• A Forgotten Edinburgh Portrait Painter by Dr. E.Cabris, Ph.D.

External links

• http://web.artprice.com/ps/artitems.aspx?view=all&idarti=NDMwNzMyNzk5NzQyNjY=&refGenre=A&page=2
• http://www.artistsfootsteps.co.uk/artists_a_z.asp?ID=34%20&loadType=2

Persondata
Name	Dobson, Cowan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1893
Place of birth
Date of death	1980
Place of death