forget that Dorothy worked in planning aircraft movements as a Senior Wren during the War.
By a stroke of luck, two letters about the painting have survived. One, dated July 1951, is from W Best Harris, the City Librarian, who thanks Dorothy for the loan of ‘Map of Plymouth’ for a summer exhibition. The second letter,of June 1976,was written by Dorothy to the curator of the museum, Mr Cumming, on his retirement. It is characteristically warm, moving, generous and funny. She wrote:
Sir William Rothenstein
Local people will find it endlessly fascinating, partly because it shows Plymouth before the depredations of the last war. Though not a map in terms of accurate scale, it isn’t too difficult to identify many of the features portrayed, though naming others might generate heated discussions and excursions into the countryside to establish who is right! Fortunately, the working drawing of 1931, in pencil on a much smaller scale, has been generously donated to the Museum and should be exhibited alongside ‘Map of Plymouth’. This drawing has several place names written on it: for instance, opposite The George public house north of Plymouth is written ‘Polo Field’, where the Park & Ride is now. Brunel’s magnificent Walkham Viaduct, regrettably demolished in 1965 and now being partially rebuilt as the cycle path over Gem Bridge, is there, leading into the tunnel at Grenofen.
The ‘Map’ is very much a painting of its time. It reminds us of the pre-war railway posters and has a feeling of joy and optimism about it. It’s a celebration of the glorious landscape between the rivers Plym and Tavy, the villages, the great city of Plymouth and the spectacular configuration of Plymouth Sound. We shouldn’t
‘I believe my mural picture of Plymouth (6’x4’) is still in the City Museum. I hope it will be kept there as a gift from me in memory of the Plymouth I once knew. I painted it while I was a student at the Royal College of Art & Sir William Rothenstein who was the Principal at that time seemed to enjoy it very much. He particularly admired the gasometers which he described as ‘perfectly charming’!’
Visitors to the exhibition will no doubt be able to find the gasometers themselves, provided they are old enough to know what to look for, of course.
executed on board. On the back it has the words ‘egg tempera’ and a few repeated notes of music. There is no real clue to which notes they represent, and they remain a mystery.
‘Map of Plymouth 1933’ is
Dorothy, at graduation, July 1933
Dorothy submitted this painting as part of her work for her Diploma at the Royal College of Art, from which she graduated in 1933, aged 23. The grade she was awarded, in blue pencil on the back, is a tick and the letter B, which tells us something about the standards of her fellow students at the RCA!
If you are going to go to see ‘Map of Plymouth’, please give yourselves enough time because you will want to study it properly. I guarantee that you will be enthralled.
Caption: A selection of Dorothy Ward's work at the Tavistock Group of Artist's Exhibition at the Town Hall in June 2011
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