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Lot Essay
“Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it”
- Tallulah Bankhead
This sculpture depicts Tallulah Bankhead, the American actress who took London’s stages by storm during the Roaring Twenties. After arriving in London in 1922 at just the age of 20, Bankhead, with her alluring stage presence, outspokenness, and outrageous party behaviour, swiftly became a firm favourite among British audiences. Her quick wit and desire to shock made the young starlet immensely popular with the press in London, as well as an exciting model for sculptor Dobson. During her 8 years in the city, she appeared in over a dozen plays and toured the theatres of Great Britain. When not on stage dazzling audiences, the stubborn Bankhead could often be spotted driving her beloved Bentley through the streets of London, obstinate that she must always drive herself, despite her terrible sense of direction. To make sure she didn’t get lost she would simply hire a taxi to drive everywhere in front of her. In her memoir, Tallulah: My Autobiography, Bankhead, who reportedly smoked 120 cigarettes a day, fondly recalls her time sitting for Dobson in the early 1920s, and in particular her encounter with famed archaeologist and writer T.E. Lawrence. She writes that at that time 'Lawrence was experiencing his first artistic fever. He haunted Dobson's studio. When [she] ran out of "gaspers", he'd chug off on his motorcycle to get [her] cigarettes’ (T. Bankhead, Tallulah: My Autobiography, Mississippi, 1952, quoted in N. Jason and L. Thompson-Pharoah, The Sculpture of Frank Dobson, Much Hadham, 1994, pg. 56).
The edition of the present work is thought to have extended to up to 2 casts, but the present sculpture is the only traced example.
- Tallulah Bankhead
This sculpture depicts Tallulah Bankhead, the American actress who took London’s stages by storm during the Roaring Twenties. After arriving in London in 1922 at just the age of 20, Bankhead, with her alluring stage presence, outspokenness, and outrageous party behaviour, swiftly became a firm favourite among British audiences. Her quick wit and desire to shock made the young starlet immensely popular with the press in London, as well as an exciting model for sculptor Dobson. During her 8 years in the city, she appeared in over a dozen plays and toured the theatres of Great Britain. When not on stage dazzling audiences, the stubborn Bankhead could often be spotted driving her beloved Bentley through the streets of London, obstinate that she must always drive herself, despite her terrible sense of direction. To make sure she didn’t get lost she would simply hire a taxi to drive everywhere in front of her. In her memoir, Tallulah: My Autobiography, Bankhead, who reportedly smoked 120 cigarettes a day, fondly recalls her time sitting for Dobson in the early 1920s, and in particular her encounter with famed archaeologist and writer T.E. Lawrence. She writes that at that time 'Lawrence was experiencing his first artistic fever. He haunted Dobson's studio. When [she] ran out of "gaspers", he'd chug off on his motorcycle to get [her] cigarettes’ (T. Bankhead, Tallulah: My Autobiography, Mississippi, 1952, quoted in N. Jason and L. Thompson-Pharoah, The Sculpture of Frank Dobson, Much Hadham, 1994, pg. 56).
The edition of the present work is thought to have extended to up to 2 casts, but the present sculpture is the only traced example.