Phyllis Dodd achieved considerable success from early on in her prolific career. Studying at the Liverpool School of Art from 1917–21, she received a Royal Exhibition Scholarship and attended the Royal College of Art for four years – alongside Henry Moore (1898–1986), Raymond Coxon (1896–1997) and Edna Ginesi (1902–2000), with whom she would remain friends for the rest of her life – winning the Drawing Prize in her final year. She was thee wife of fellow artist Douglas Percy Bliss (1900-1984). In 1989, the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University held a large retrospective exhibition to celebrate her ninetieth birthday. This is an early work, probably made during the mid 1920s.