The directory «Artists»

Dodd Robert
(1748—1815)

British marine painter and graphic artist who lived and worked in Wapping, London. Nothing is known about his training and little of his career but he was a prolific aquatint engraver who published much of his own work, which was also engraved by others. He exhibited at the Society of Artists in London in 1780 and the Royal Academy between 1782 and 1809. He produced fine and detailed portrayals of famous ships, such as Nelson’s ‘Victory Sailing from Spithead’ (1791, National Maritime Museum, London) and also painted naval actions of both the American Revolutionary War and the French Wars of 1793–1815. He conveyed well the drama of a battle and storm through spectacular light effects, such as the sun’s rays piercing dark clouds, and by contrasting fire and black smoke against a serene blue sky. He also painted and engraved a series of views of the Royal Dockyards and of Greenwich Hospital. The print from his painting of ‘The Mutiny of the Bounty', showing the mutineers casting Captain Bligh and his loyal men adrift is the best known contemporary image of that event and he also illustrated an edition of William Falconer’s poem ‘The Shipwreck’ (W. Baynes, London, 1811) with 18 aquatints of ships in various weather conditions. In 1795 he painted a huge canvas of the end of Lord Howe’s victory at the Battle of the Glorious First of June, 1794, for the dining room of his local inn in Commercial Road, London. His works have been confused with those of his lesser known marine-painter brother, Ralph.

French Polinesie, 1989, Mutiny on «Bounty»