Editing William Dobson (section)

== Works ==

[[File:Добсон портрет жены художника Джудит. Ок. 1634-1640.jpg|thumbnail|Portrait thought to be of the artist's second wife, Judith, c. 1635–1640<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dobson-portrait-of-the-artists-wife-t06640|title= William Dobson Portrait of the Artist's Wife c.1635–40 |publisher=Tate Gallery|access-date=2 February 2015}}</ref>]]

Around sixty of Dobson's works survive, mostly half-length portraits dating from 1642 or later. The thick [[impasto]] of his early work gave way to a mere skim of paint, perhaps reflecting a wartime scarcity of materials. After Oxford fell to the [[roundhead|Parliamentarian]]s, in June 1646, Dobson returned to London. Now without patronage, he was briefly imprisoned for debt and died in poverty at the age of thirty-five.

[[Ellis Waterhouse]] described Dobson as "the most distinguished purely British painter before [[William Hogarth|Hogarth]]",<ref>E. K. Waterhouse, ''Painting in Britain 1530–1790'', 5th edn, New Haven and London 1994, p.80, quoted in [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=20523&searchid=10649&roomid=false&tabview=text&texttype=10 United Kingdom Tate Gallery — William Dobson 1611–1646, ''Portrait of the Artist's Wife'' circa 1635–1640].</ref> and in the view of [[Waldemar Januszczak]] he was "the first British born genius, the first truly dazzling English painter".<ref>Waldemar Januszczak in part three of his BBC documentary series, [[Baroque! From St Peter's to St Paul's]]; and 'The first great British painter?' in Tate, 17, Spring 1999, p.62.</ref>

There are examples of Dobson's work at the [[National Gallery]], the [[National Gallery of Scotland]], [[Tate Britain]], the [[National Portrait Gallery (London)|National Portrait Gallery]], the [[National Maritime Museum]], [[Queen's House]] in Greenwich, the [[Walker Art Gallery]] in Liverpool, the [[Ferens Art Gallery]] in Hull, the [[Courtauld Institute of Art]], the [[Dulwich Picture Gallery]] in London, in several [[English country house]]s including notably [[Alnwick Castle]] where Dobson's self-portrait with [[Nicholas Lanier]] and [[Charles Cotterell]] is displayed, at the [[Yale Center for British Art]] in New Haven, CT, USA, and at the [[Dunedin Public Art Gallery]] in New Zealand.

The 2011 anniversary of his birth was marked by exhibitions, a 'Dobson Trail' listing his paintings on a website, and a [[BBC]] television profile by Januszczak, ''The Lost Genius of British Art: William Dobson''.<ref>[http://www.williamdobson.tv/ William Dobson 1611–1646].</ref>