The list of professional portrait
artists in Florida in the years
between 1840 to 1960 is too long
to recount here. There were itinerant
traveling portrait artists working in
St. Augustine and Tallahassee in
1837-1838 before Florida became a
territory in 1840. They came seeking
portrait commissions and warm
winter weather. The Florida portrait
work of William Niblo, Jr. and F. B.
Ladd, both from New York, and later
the portraits of William McK. Russell,
in Tallahassee, are to date, lost, but
twentieth century Florida portraits
can be found.
Charles Bullet first arrived in
Fort Myers for the winter season
of 1918. Born in Cincinnati, Bullet
lived most of his life across the Ohio
River in Campbell County, Kentucky.
He painted on Sanibel and Captiva
Islands, becoming well known for
his early Florida landscapes. But
he did portraits as well. The Fort
Myers Press, February 17, 1927,
carried a notice of an exhibition of
his work at the Community House,
and the last chance to get one of his
fine oil paintings of Florida scenes.
He returned home to Fort Thomas,
Kentucky, and died suddenly on April
1, 1927, at the age of sixty-three.
Charles Bullet, Ft. Myers, Oil on board
9 x 14 inches.
PORTRAITURE
Continued from Page 13
Good Florida portraits are not easy
to find. Artist self-portraits, even
harder. I stumbled on Mark Dixon
Dodd’s on eBay. Dodd moved to St.
Petersburg from New York City and
opened a studio on Beach Drive.
He became a prominent member
of the city’s art community. In
1933 his mural Seminole War was
commissioned by the state of Florida
as one of a series of historical
subjects for the Florida building at
the Chicago Century of Progress.
I found this review of his work in
the St. Petersburg Times, April 13,
1930. “Mark Dixon Dodd may be truly
called a St. Petersburg artist since
for the last few years he has had his
house and studio in the city, except
for those painting pilgrimages which
he has taken from time to time to the
west and to the Carolina Mountains.
He has a delightful studio and school
of art in the picturesque Bayboro
section, and is also head of the fine
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