Footnotes

• Born in 1943, in Hastings, Louis Dodd attended the Hastings School of Art and the Goldsmith School of Art. His ability in draftsmanship and line work earned him a National Diploma in Design. After graduating from Goldsmith School of Art, he remained there as a member of staff, teaching graphics and running the reprographic unit. Later he taught at Hastings School of Art, and eventually became a full-time painter at the age of 36.
  
  Connoisseur Magazine said 'Every decade a few artists emerge to a position of greatness and prestige to make their mark indelibly and powerfully on the art of their time, and Louis Dodd is just such an artist. He is possibly the most historically gifted artist to come into the marine field in the last 100 years'. He has the distinction of winning the Schaefer Award, the highest given in the field of marine art, three times, and is the first contemporary artist to be listed in the Dictionary of Maritime Painters.
  
  Weeks or months of careful research and countless sketches preceded each painting, and Dodd developed his own highly refined method of painting, based on the techniques of the Old Masters. Painting in oils on carefully prepared gessoed panels of mahogany, and later of marine ply, he began with a base painting of the sky, sea and background. Over that, using a very fine brush, he painted the detailed outlines of shipping and background buildings. Then he applied many layers of transparent glazes, allowing ample drying time between them, and this created a brilliance of colour, and illusion of light to the finished work.
  
  The present lot will be illustrated in Captain Andrew Jampoler's book on American naval history entitled 'Embassy of the Eastern Courts', due to be published later this year by the Naval Institute Press in Annapolis, Maryland.