MONTAGUE J. DAWSON
England, 1890-1973
Deck view of four figures on a ship sailing through moderate seas.
Signed lower left "Montague Dawson".
Oil on canvas, 20.5" x 30". Framed 26" x 35.5".
Condition: Relined with minimal restoration. MONTAGUE DAWSON
British, 1895–1973
BIOGRAPHY
Oil on canvas signed lower right "Montague Dawson" on the bottom left with his distinctive black signature. The painting depicts a square rig ship from the stern looking towards the bow with a moderate sea of rolling waves to the left. Near the bottom of the picture, one sees a sailor at the helm stearing the ship and a few others at the stern deck rail. Looking towards the bow one sees all three masts along with highly detailed rigging. The sails are beautifully rendered with crisp painted sail seams and reef points.
Most of Dawson paintings feature single ships at sea, A pained several yachting scenes and as an artist working for the Royal Navy he painted several navel war time naval subjects. Less than ten percent of Dawon’s paintings show deck scenes like the one described here. They are all different and are highly desirable. Many of the highest prices realized for Dawson paintings were paid for these deck scene type of painting subject.
Biography
Born in Chiswick in West London in 1895, Montague Dawson was the grandson of the eminent Victorian landscape painter Henry Dawson (1811-1878). He studied under the celebrated seascape artist Charles Napier Hemy (1841–1917) at the Royal Academy and also worked in an art school in Bedford Row. Dawson joined the navy during World War I and painted naval battles for illustrated magazines. He first met his mentor, Hemy, while on leave from the Royal Navy and frequented his studio in Falmouth, Cornwall. Hemy advised the young Dawson, “You must follow after me and you must do better than me.”
After the war Dawson became a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and began a life-long exclusive relationship with the London gallery Frost & Reed. He was also an associate of the Royal Society of Artists and a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. He was appointed as an official war artist during World War II.
Montague Dawson’s paintings are instantly recognizable. He developed a style and approach to marine painting that was entirely his own and consistent throughout his long developing career. Dawson combined what he called ‘portraits’ of clipper ships and racing yachts with ‘landscapes’ at sea in order to lure the viewer into “that moment of time”, as he said, in which “you can hear the sea –that sea.” The dazzling array of oceans and skies in Dawson’s work is encapsulated by his evocative titles such as “Song of the Sea” or “Vast Heaving”. Dawson was as at ease painting Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Yacht “Bluebottle” racing in the Solent as he was summoning the great clipper ship “Cutty Sark” from its noble past.
“Shortly before his death in 1973,” writes Ron Ranson in his 1993 monograph, “a remarkable tribute was made to Montague Dawson. He looked out of his window one day to see two fully rigged training ships, the Royalist and the Sir Winston Churchill, apparently sailing straight towards his house on the shore. At what appeared to be the very last moment, they turned about, and both ships dipped their ensigns in salute to the man who had probably done more than any other to capture the magic and majesty of sail” (Ron Ranson, The Maritime Paintings of Montague Dawson, Newton Abbot, Devon, 1993, p. 15).
Museum Collections:Museum Collections:
British Museum, London
Cambridge University Library, Cambridge
Fusilier Museum, London
Historic Dockyard, Chatham
Imperial War Museum, London
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Mariners Museum, Newport News, VA
McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth
National Museums Collection Centre, U.K.
National War Museum, Edinburgh
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Sir Max Aitken Museum, Cowes, Isle of Wight
Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
Tyne
