Portrait.

William Dring (1904-90) earned his reputation as a fine draughtsman and portrait painter whilst studying under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art between 1922 and 1925. He worked as a teacher of drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art until 1940 when he was employed by the War Artist Advisory Committee, first as official war artist to the Admiralty and later to the Air Ministry. He made a large number of portrait drawings of individuals and groups, all remarkable for their informality. Dring travelled extensively to complete his commissions. The drawing is always precise and carefully modelled using pastel, a medium in which he specialised, and which allowed him to capture the likeness and spirit of his subjects quickly and under a variety of circumstances.

Clement (Edward) Bridgman (1906-43) enjoyed a successful but sadly short career in the Navy, serving as Lieutenant Commander on board HMS ‘Dianthus’ between January 1941 and November 1942. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Order for successful action whilst captain of the HMS ‘Dianthus’. He was then placed in command of the HMS ‘Itchen’ which, on 23 September 1943, was hit by a German Torpedo in the North Atlantic. She was carrying 227 men on board including those she had rescued from other wrecks, but there were only three survivors and Bridgman went down with his ship.

Dring created this vivid portrait on a visit to Londonderry in May or June 1943, as part of a series of portraits of naval captains. Bridgman is depicted with a twinkle in his eye, facing the viewer head on, and so it is particularly poignant that he died just a matter of months after sitting for this portrait. At the time Bridgman’s wife was promised a photograph of the portrait, and after his death a friend of hers chased up this offer with the War Artists Advisory Committee, also asking for a duplicate of the portrait itself to commemorate her husband. Rather than creating an exact replica, Dring was created a new portrait, saying that he remembered Bridgman fondly as a ‘delightful man [with] such a magnificent head.’