Campbell Dodgson (Bio)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dodgson, Campbell

Date born: 1867

Place born: Crayford, Kent, United Kingdom

Date died: 1948

Place died: London, United Kingdom

Historian of German and Flemish drawings, Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum. Dodgson came from a middle-class investment family, distantly related to Lewis Carroll (née Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). He attended Winchester and then New College, Oxford, where he read in Classics and Theology. His intention to be ordained changed after college (perhaps because of his realization of latent homosexuality). Dodgson assisted Oscar Wilde's friend Lord Alfred Douglas at Oxford, spending a well-documented weekend with Wild and Douglas at Babbacombe near Torquay. He joined the British Museum in 1893 in the Department of Prints and Drawings under Sir Sidney Colvin (q.v.). He hired Oxford poet Laurence Binyon (q.v.) as an assistant Keeper in 1895. In 1898 he co-founded the publications of the Dürer Society (lasting until 1911) with Montagu Peartree. He translated many of the immensely popular Künstler-Monographien series of Velhagen & Klasing publisher into English, especially those of Hermann Knackfuss (q.v.). In 1903 and 1911, the two volumes of his catalog of the Flemish and German woodcuts of the British Museum were published. This achieved him international recognition as an authority of those areas. Other volumes in this series were written under the emerging scholars of the department, including the young Arthur M. Hind (q.v.). In 1912 Dodgson succeeded Colvin as Keeper. In 1913 he married Catharine Spooner, daughter of the Reverend W. A. Spooner, Warden of New College. Dodgson edited the Print Collectors Newsletter for and frequently contributed articles to the Burlington Magazine. During World War I, he was a German translator for the British government running the Department largely by himself because of the lack of labor the war had caused. In 1929, Dodgson's niece married the art historian J. Byam Shaw (q.v.). Shaw and Dodgson became close, despite a subsequent divorce by Shaw. Binyon succeeded Dodgson as Keeper in 1932 for one year before his own retirement. Throughout his life, Dodgson collected prints and, being heirless, did so with the understanding they would go to the Department of Prints and Drawings. He also was instrumental in donating £2000, a large sum of money at the time, to assist in the purchase of the magnificent Dürer drawing of a Tirolean woman

Peter Roth describes Dodgson as being one of the first in England to apply the rigorous techniques of German art history. Dodgson carefully described and analyzed prints. His interests were primarily northern renaissance prints and drawings.

Home Country: United Kingdom

Sources: Panofsky, Erwin. "The History of Art." In The Cultural Migration: The European Scholar in America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953, mentioned, p. 85; Erwin Panofsky. "Wilhelm Vöge: A Biographical Memoir." Art Journal 28 no. 1 (Fall 1968): 27, mentioned; Roth, Peter. "Campbell Dodgson" Print Review 4: 34; [obituaries:] "Dr. Campbell Dodgson, Prints And Drawings." The Times [London]. July 14, 1948, p. 7; Schilling, E. "Campbell Dodgson." The Burlington Magazine 90 (October 1948): 293-4.

Bibliography: [complete bibliography:] Schilling, E. "Campbell Dodgson." The Burlington Magazine 90 (October 1948): 293-4; Catalogue of early German and Flemish woodcuts preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1903 ff.

After further review, Mr. Campbell Dodgson signed his work with his initials CD.

Researched by Wilfred Martineau

cover page of my findings

Leonora d’Este This is a lithograph of Leonora d’Este believed to have been done in the state of Massachusetts during the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. It maybe one of three copies of a Raphael painting that was done at that time. The three copies was to be shipped to three different parts of the world. One of the prints was lost and I believe that this is the lost one. Please read the next few pages and you be the judge.     At the time that the portrait was to be shipped, it was prepared for the shipping by being mounted on a five-layer, 11-9/16” high x 9-1/4”wide x 7/16” thick. Tree sap is notice around and on the back of the plywood in use for preserving. This is the way that a print would have been preserved for a long shipment.        On the back of the plywood mounting, is the letters CD. There were several ways of me looking for the meaning of CD. The first was to try and find out if there was a meaning to the person who did the lithograph, so I went on to find the ones who may have done this. My findings were; Charles Cros and Louis Ducos du Hauron. Then I went on to another finding that made more meaning and that was; Clarissa Demary whose married last name became Stearns from the state of New Hampshire. A new finding for CD, and more renounce finding, is the print was to have gone to the British M.F.A. and Mr. Campbell Dodgson was and would have been the caretaker of this print before it was to go on to the Museum. Mr. Dodgson is the meaning to CD because this print was to be on route to British M.F.A. at he turn of the century.

Clarissa (Damary) Stearns and her husband Capt. Freeborn Stearns from the town of Rindge, New Hampshire in the 1800’s. After looking into Clarissa family tree, I found out a family member of hers owned a lumber company in the state of Massachusetts. The family member may have been responsible for the preparation of the print shipment.     After over 100 years of neglect, I purchased this protective poly plastic glass with slots for three books on the bottom. My brother in law, Mr. W. Embrey, design and made this display case for me. Made to protect the print from any more damage, it is designed to protect it from UV damage. It is a fine piece for a fine work of art. The books I am going to place in it will be Leonora d’Este, her mother Isabella and her sister Beatrice.       My name is Wilfred (Bill) Martineau, I am the now owner and researcher of this fine lithograph. I hope you find the story of this print enjoyable to read about, as I found it as much enjoyable to research and bring to you pleasure.

Art Expert Charge Holds Genoa Dealer

 

 

 

 

Published: February 28, 1970

Copyright © The New York Times

Elenora Gonzaga (aka) Boston Raphael