Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson

The Bacidae, 1883

oil on canvas

79 x 63 in.

Gift of Richard B. Dodson

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Sarah Dodson was born in Philadelphia to a father who was an illustrator, engraver and portraitist.  She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and then went to Paris to continue her studies. Following a trip to Italy, Dodson was inspired by the Renaissance masters.  She set her artistic ambitions on completing monumental works based on dramatic themes from the Bible, history, or classical mythology.  She remained in France until 1891 and then settled in Brighton England. 

The Bacidae was part of a series of salon pictures.  It shows two priestesses of Baccis, a noted soothsayer who pretended to foretell future events from studying the entrails of birds.  The painting represents the initiation by an old priestess of a new member of the order, who seems revolted by the process.  This large canvas was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1883. Dodson received praise for her technique, which was described as “virile in color and draftsmanship, powerful without exaggeration, masculine without straining.”  

This canvas became the artist’s best known work.

Reference

David Cartlidge.  Art and the Christian Apocrypha, Milton Park, UK:  Routledge, 2001.  ISBN: 0415233917