As a guide to the correct spelling of her surname. it might help some of those who really should know better, among them certain prestigious art galleries and art auction houses, to remember that her name ends in 'er' and not 'or' - that she was a painter not a doctor.

Born in Hampstead in 1890 or thereabouts, her actual date of birth is uncertain, Doris Margaret Shaw, (she later gave herself the nickname of Dod) came to Newlyn in 1907, when still in her teens, to study at the Forbes School of Painting.

It was to be the start of a 65-year long attachment to Newlyn and a 23-year long marriage to Ernest Procter, "a shining light at the school", whom she met there and later married but who, in 1935, suffered a fatal heart attack. The break-up of "a golden artistic couple", her husband's sudden death was to affect her considerably and, as Alison James, author of the book on the life and times of Dod Procter which accompanies the exhibition, says: "Life without him was to take on new directions... and in the 37 years of widowhood which followed, the passions Dod had for hot weather, unfamiliar territories and people were re-energised and she was to travel often, starting with trips to America and Canada in 1936."

Yet, while Tenerife, the West Indies and Africa, were also to provide her with subject matter, she always returned to Newlyn and it was a painting she made there in the 1920s, 'Morning', which, for a time at least, made her the darling of Britain's art world. "A triumph of brilliant painting", a painting for which local 16-year-old Cissie Barnes was the model, it excited such interest when shown at the Royal Academy's 1927 Summer Exhibition.

It was immediately purchased for the British public by the Daily Mail, which boasted of its transaction under the banner headline 'Gift to the Nation'. Now, as a gift to Penzance, Penlee House Gallery & Museum has borrowed it from Tate London and made it the centrepiece of this exhibition.

An artist within whose work the relationship between form, colour and texture has been described as being "well-nigh perfect" and "constructed in such depth that it tends to make everything near it appear thin and transient", while Dod Procter's forte was undoubtedly the nude female figure, and while it may be a contradiction in terms, even her dressed figure studies, such as 'Morning', are so sensuous and seductive they might well be regarded as 'clothed nudes', she was a consummate artist.

From the acclaimed 'Morning' to a 'Portrait of Eileen Mayo', who was to become quite an artist herself: from a study of her 'Aunt Lilla' to a 'View of North Corner', her home in Newlyn: from 'The Bather', which features her daughter-in-law, the late Phoebe Procter, to 'The Pearl Necklace' a painting which was her Royal Academy Diploma work, presented when she was elected as an Academician in 1942: from 'Early Morning Newlyn' to 'Steps at Oakhill Cottage, Lamorna' where she lived prior to her marriage, this exhibition leaves one in no doubt at all that Dod Procter could draw and paint like an angel.

The exhibition is accompanied by a collection of scanned archive photographs of Dod and Ernest Procter, of their family and friends - look closely and spot such other luminaries of the day as Phoebe Procter, Jeanne du Maurier, Ella Naper, and Charles and Ruth Simpson - plus, of course, Alison James' monograph 'A Singular Vision: Dod Procter 1890-1972', published by Sansom & Company at £19.95, in which it is only fair to point out the colour reproduction of some of the paintings leaves much to be desired, this is yet another immensely satisfying exhibition in the long list of such hit shows mounted by Penlee House Gallery & Museum in recent years.

* Not to be missed, sponsored by WH Lane & Sons, Fine Art Auctioneers, Penzance, 'A Singular Vision: Dod Procter 1890-1972', is at Penlee House Gallery & Museum until November 24.

article copyright - THE CORNISHMAN 

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