On This Day 26th January 1904 Dennis Dring was born
Dennis William Dring, RA (26 January 1904–29 September 1990), was an English portrait painter.
Dring is reported as being born in Streatham (although the 1911 Census indicates he was born in Brixton but the family lived at 33 Kingscourt Rd in Streatham) and the 1939 census showed he lived with his wife Grace at Windy Ridge in Winchester. He died in Winchester in 1990
He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1922 and 1925, where he won several prizes and scholarships. He taught drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art until 1942. In the late 1920s Dring was commissoned by the architects Edwin Lutyens and Albert Edward Richardson to paint a number of murals.
At the start of the Second World War Dring completed several portrait commissions for the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC. In early 1942 he resigned from Southampton School of Art to work on a full-time contract for the Committee, specialising in Admiralty portraits.
He travelled extensively within Britain at this time, painting subjects in Portsmouth, Scotland and the Western Approaches. In the late summer of 1943 he was given a second full-time contract which included more general subjects.
His final war-time contract with WAAC saw Dring working on portraits for the Air Ministry throughout 1944 and 1945. Sixty-four of Drings war-time portraits, mostly pastels are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, who also hold five oil paintings by him. There are a further forty of his wartime works at the National Maritime Museum, mostly pastel portraits.
Self Portrait - Russell Coates Art Gallery & Museum ©artist's estate / Bridgeman Images. Photo credit: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
Dennis William Dring, RA (26 January 1904–29 September 1990), was an English portrait painter.
Dring is reported as being born in Streatham (although the 1911 Census indicates he was born in Brixton but the family lived at 33 Kingscourt Rd in Streatham) and the 1939 census showed he lived with his wife Grace at Windy Ridge in Winchester. He died in Winchester in 1990
He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1922 and 1925, where he won several prizes and scholarships. He taught drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art until 1942. In the late 1920s Dring was commissoned by the architects Edwin Lutyens and Albert Edward Richardson to paint a number of murals.
At the start of the Second World War Dring completed several portrait commissions for the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC. In early 1942 he resigned from Southampton School of Art to work on a full-time contract for the Committee, specialising in Admiralty portraits.
He travelled extensively within Britain at this time, painting subjects in Portsmouth, Scotland and the Western Approaches. In the late summer of 1943 he was given a second full-time contract which included more general subjects.
His final war-time contract with WAAC saw Dring working on portraits for the Air Ministry throughout 1944 and 1945. Sixty-four of Drings war-time portraits, mostly pastels are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, who also hold five oil paintings by him. There are a further forty of his wartime works at the National Maritime Museum, mostly pastel portraits.
Self Portrait - Russell Coates Art Gallery & Museum ©artist's estate / Bridgeman Images. Photo credit: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
Black and white picture ©National Portrait Gallery
Captain Heathcote ©Imperial War Museum
