The Pearl Necklace, ca. 1932-41

Dod Procter RA (1891 - 1972)

RA Collection: Art

Dod Procter RA was well-known for her female portraits and studies of the female form, depicting her subjects with a sensitivity that earned her critical and public acclaim. Here, the viewer’s focus is guided to the string of pearls; yet the work is also a refined portrait of a young woman, lost in thought. The model in the painting features in several of Procter’s works from around this time, a pattern that reflects the artist’s preference to work repeatedly with models she befriended in her local area of Newlyn, Cornwall. These were sometimes professional models, but Procter also engaged her friends and neighbours to sit for her paintings.

The style of this portrait, painted over several years, is markedly different from her works of the previous decade, including Morning (1927, now at Tate) which was voted the public’s ‘Picture of the Year’ at the 1927 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Moving away from solid sculptural forms of her earlier style, The Pearl Necklace shows a more impressionistic technique and softer tonal variation. This was likely influenced by her earlier engagement with the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Movements while she was studying at the Atelier Colarossi in Paris from 1910-11. Although different in execution, the painting retains the still, reflective mood of many of her early works and figure studies that characterised her creative output.