Completed Portraits: British 20th C, South West England: Artists and Subjects 16 Can you identify the monogram and other marks on this portrait of Dr Dorothy Chown?

How about Joseph Mordecai ? as I see Monogram as JM

None of Mordecai's works on Art UK have such a disproportionately large and prominent monogram, Louis.

There is possibly a small inscription in the bottom left corner, though the marks could also just be abrasions on the paint.

And that big orange oval top left-possibly DA ???
Er --- I have just been looking at the Chown Photographs in the Morrab Photo archive- and well ,this painting looks just like a photo of Mrs Chown ---Dorothy (Dolly)Amy Chown's mother ???

http://photoarchive.morrablibrary.org.uk/items/show/6585

Ah yes--Top left DAC--- Dorothy Amy Chown

Kieran

That section, bottom left, as requested

David

Thank you David. There is nothing readable so perhaps it is just an optical effect on the digital image.

As a train-spotting footnote, the inverted text in the top left corner of the Morrab Photo archive photograph of Mrs. Chown is a fragment of Kenneth Grahame’s note on 'The Wind in the Willows'. Spinning the section the right way up (as attached), for the purposes of comparison the visible words are presented here in brackets:

“A book of (youth), and so perhaps chiefly for youth and those (who still) keep the spirit of youth alive in them; of life, sunshine, running water, (woodlands), dusty roads, winter firesides, free of problems, clear of the clash of the (sex, of life) as it might fairly be supposed to be regarded by some of the wise, small (things) that ‘glide in grasses and rubble of woody (wreck)’.”

Why these words by Grahame are attached to this photograph is unclear. Perhaps it was just an available page or sheet of paper upon which the photograph was printed.

This is an older discussion.

Is this the work of James Bolivar Manson (1879–1945)? https://tinyurl.com/4zdff8yn. In 1911 the Census shows Manson residing at 34 Hampstead Way, Hendon (London).

The attached composite is based on (clockwise):

1. This work
2. An extract from 'Edith Matthews, née Meredith' https://tinyurl.com/2p8btbjk
3. 'Portrait of a seated lady in a blue dress' on the Bonham's website https://tinyurl.com/23jxf8by
4. 'The Garden' https://tinyurl.com/2p956v4v

I have included 'The Garden' because the minty green paint colour is similar to that used in Dr. Chown's dress.

I would have expected him to incorporate the B of his middle name in a monogram but the monogram would have been quite messy with another letter.

None of Manson’s works on Art UK carries a monogram, and those that are signed are done so differently. The existence of similar blues and greens in ‘The Garden’ isn't evidence. The paint colour, for instance, was widely available at the time, rather than being a ‘key match' that defines Manson’s work in relation to anyone else’s.

Tomorrow I'll ask the collection if they could help us by checking files that were inaccessible when this discussion began. According to their website, the portrait is believed to have been ‘painted in London when Dr Chown was a student, possibly by her landlady’. Where did that suggestion originate? Who was Dr Chown’s landlady?

Portions of the Oriental vessel in a work by James Bolivar Manson resemble the monogram in the work being discussed.

https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auctions/fine-paintings-161/lot/128

Perhaps he just wanted to fill what would otherwise be a large blank space in the canvas.

The 1921 census shows that Dorothy Amy Chown was a medical student at the London School of Medicine. Her address was 13 Brunswick Square, WC1. Only her name is shown on that record.

A ship's manifest from September 1930 (New York to Plymouth and London) shows the address of Dorothy and her father Francis as Tehidy Sanatorium, Camborne, Cornwall.

The 1939 register shows that she lived with her parents and a young domestic servant at Polmennor House, Heamoor, Penzance, Cornwall.

The donors would have been the daughters of James Hodge (1920-2007) and his wife Betty Hodge (née Hood)(c. 1921-2008) of Cornwall. The ‘Cornish Guardian’ of the 28th February 1957 reported that James “is one of Britain's foremost authorities on jet propulsion. He is chief engineer of Power Jets, Ltd., has lectured in America on jets, and wrote a standard book on the subject. He was also one of the first men to fly in a jet-powered aircraft during the war.”

Marcie, I do not think our monogram is related to the Asian ceramic figure in that Manson painting.

Laura Knight (1877-1970) made a drawing of Francis Chown, the brother of Dorothy:

https://www.heartofconflict.org.uk/francis-jack-chown-of-townshen/

These are the notes that Penlee House Gallery & Museum have on file.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to Art Detective in the ten years since it was established. The pooled knowledge of this unique congregation of expert, generous and enthusiastic people has led to numerous discoveries and more than 200 new artist biographies – a quite remarkable achievement.

Particular thanks are due to Pieter van der Merwe for painstakingly extracting most of the biographies from discussions; to the stalwart group leaders who have aided and summarised discussions, including all those who have since left (and so kindly returned); and – though virtually impossible and risky to single anyone out – I could not see the site closing without mentioning the massive individual contributions publicly and privately of Osmund Bullock and Kieran Owens.

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There are many people still to thank in person, who could not be mentioned here. I will be working up to 25 July to try to resolve and update discussions that could not be closed as planned.

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With thanks again and best wishes,
Marion