Lot 15 Details
Montague Dawson (1895-1973), British
THE NEW YORK CLIPPER - CHALLENGE
oil on canvas
signed lower left
21 x 31 in — 53.3 x 78.7 cm
Estimate $20,000-$30,000
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Ontario
Note:
At the age of fifteen, Montague Dawson started working for a commercial art studio at Bedford Row in London, where he worked on commercial posters and illustrations. The grandson of landscape painter Henry Dawson, Montague never received a formal art education. An autodidact, he taught himself the necessary skills that would earn him his reputation in seascape painting.
During the First World War, Montague enlisted and became a lieutenant of the Royal Navy. His artistic abilities were quickly recognized, and Dawson was assigned the duty of visually recording the war at sea. Mentored by the marine painter Charles Napier Hemy, many of his drawings recording the war became illustrations which were published in The Sphere. At the end of the war in 1918, an issue of The Sphere was entirely dedicated to his drawings of the final surrender of the German Grand Fleet.
In 1924, Dawson embarked on a treasure hunt to the Caribbean. His illustrations were featured once more in The Sphere and The Graphic newspapers, confirming the artist as one of the most promising artists in the United Kingdom. Two years later he began his collaboration with the Frost & Reed gallery in London and began to focus on producing oil paintings instead of the drawings and watercolours made for the newspapers. The success of this collaboration allowed Dawson to relocate to a new home in Milford directly on the coast with a view of the sea.
World War II brought war to the UK and its coastline. Inspired by his experience during the First World War, Dawson stayed at home and painted at the request of the Royal Navy. He produced a large number of illustrations for The Sphere to help bolster the war effort and increase morale.
In 1946, Dawson became a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and provided paintings to the collections of the British royal family, and Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson.
After the war, Dawson’s paintings of warships and navy battles were quickly replaced by a new subject, the clipper. Clippers were merchant vessels designed for speed with large sails and multiple masts, designed to allow the easy transportation of merchandise being imported from China and abroad to be sold in the UK. Dawson would focus on these romantic vessels – conquerors of the seas – until his death in 1973. Featured alone or in battle, these clippers, like the painting offered here, The New York Clipper - Challenge, remind us of an evocative period in marine history.
CONDITION DETAILS
Very good overall condition.
Slight loss top right quadrant, slight accretions bottom left quadrant.