Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dodd, Robert
DODD, ROBERT (1748–1816?), marine painter and engraver, commenced his artistic career as a landscape-painter, and is stated to have attained some success in that line at the age of twenty-three. In 1779 he was living at 33 Wapping Wall, near St. James's Stairs, Shadwell, and at the same place there also lived a painter, Ralph Dodd. It would seem that they were brothers, and it is difficult to distinguish their paintings, as they exhibited concurrently from 1779 to 1782, when Robert Dodd removed to 32 Edgware Road. It would also seem that Ralph Dodd should not be identified with Ralph Dodd the engineer [q. v.] Residing as he did in the midst of the greatest shipping centre of the world, Dodd found plenty of opportunity for practice as a painter of marine subjects, a line in which he attained great excellence. His pictures of sea-fights and tempests were very much admired. Many of them he engraved or aquatinted and published himself. He first appears as an exhibitor in 1780 at the Society of Artists in Spring Gardens, contributing ‘A Group of Shipping in a Calm,’ ‘Evening with a Light Breeze,’ and ‘An Engagement by Moonlight.’ He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782, sending ‘Captain McBride in the Artois frigate capturing two Dutch Privateers on the Dogger-bank’ and ‘A View of the Whale-fishery in Greenland’ (engraved and published by him in 1789). He continued to exhibit numerous pictures at the Royal Academy up to 1809. Towards the close of his life Dodd resided at 41 Charing Cross, where he was still living in 1816. Among the marine subjects painted by him the most remarkable were some sets of pictures representing the events of the terrible storm on 16 Sept. 1782 which befell Admiral Graves's squadron on its return as convoy to prizes from Jamaica, and which resulted in the loss of H.M.S. Ramillies and Centaur and the French prizes La Ville de Paris, Le Glorieux, and Le Hector. These pictures were very much admired for the skill and truthfulness shown in depicting the fury of the tempest. Among his exhibited works may be noted two pictures representing ‘The Capture of the French ship L'Amazonne by H.M. frigate Santa Margaritta’ (Royal Academy, 1784), ‘The Spanish Treachery at Nootka Sound’ (Society of Artists, 1791), ‘H.M.S. Victory sailing from Spithead with a Division’ (Royal Academy, 1792), ‘The Dutch Fleet defeated on 11 Oct. 1797 by Admiral Lord Duncan’ (Royal Academy, 1798), two pictures of the ‘Battle of Trafalgar’ (Royal Academy, 1806), ‘View of the River from Westminster Bridge during the Conflagration of Drury Lane Theatre’ (Royal Academy, 1809), &c. Many of his pictures were engraved also by R. Pollard, C. Morrison, and others, or aquatinted by F. Jukes. Dodd also published views of the dockyards at Blackwall, Chatham, Deptford, and Woolwich, ‘The Loss of the East Indiaman Halsewell,’ ‘The Mutineers turning Lieutenant Bligh adrift from H.M.S. Bounty,’ and many others. As an instance of a different style may be noted two views of Highbury Place and two of Grosvenor and Queen Squares. A collection of these engravings may be seen in the print-room at the British Museum.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1882; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and Society of Artists; Biographie Universelle.]