Bronze cast from the original 1922 plaster in 2022 in a very small edition of 3 only.

Dobson Estate stamp
Numbered
Black Isle Foundry stamp

The original bronze casting is held by the Tate Gallery having been gifted to them by T E Lawrence.

"Although the main reason for living in Chelsea was affordability, Dobson’s studio was well situated in terms of social networks. Sir Osbert Sitwell lived down the road, and besides Ben Nicholson, TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) was also a neighbour. Dobson began a portrait bust of Sitwell which took three months of daily sittings to complete. Lawrence was a regular visitor to Dobson’s studio and would arrive silently, often while Osbert was posing. In fact, Lawrence was so impressed by Dobson’s sculpture that he bought a cast of the finished head, which he first lent and then bequeathed to the Tate Gallery. He described it as follows: ‘Appropriate, authentic and magnificent in my eyes, I think it’s his finest piece of portraiture and in addition it’s as loud as the massed band of the Guards’.
The highly polished finish was eminently suitable for such a sophisticated sitter, while the visual echo of Brancusi’s gleaming forms in its presentation and use of materials offered a nice Post-Impressionist touch, and jazzy surface reflections made it even more contemporary."
Andrew Lambirth, Frank Dobson 'Bring it Alive'. Goldmark 2022.