JAMES DIXON (1887–1970) Cutty Sark Oil on paper laid on bo...

Hammer

€36,000

JAMES DIXON (1887–1970) Cutty Sark Oil on paper laid on board, 54.5 x 76cm (21½ x 30) Signed and inscribed 'Cutty Sark, the famous British Windjammer' Exhibited: London Auction/Desmond Fine Art, 'Contemporary Artists from Ireland' July 1990 ***PLEASE NOTE: Catalogue description should read 'Oil on paper laid on board'*** The idea of an unmediated connection to place is most evident in the paintings of the untrained Tory Island painter James Dixon (1887-1970). After meeting the artist Derek Hill, he started painting in the late 1950s. Dixon’s images of Tory, although influenced by Hill’s practice, seem to convey an honest, engaged representation of the island. Unlike other artists of the time depicting island life, Dixon was a native islander who had spent his entire life in its environment. In Cutty Sark, Dixon has depicted a British clipper ship set against an expanse of blue sea. Dixon has faithfully rendered the elegant design of the ship with its refined hull shape, raked masts and large sail area. As with other works by Dixon he has flattened the perspective, and instead of distance horizon line, the sky and sea meet, dark grey clouds rising from the surface. He uses quick brushstrokes applied in varying directions to suggest the ocean swell, adding flecks of white paint as the waves crest and break. The ship looks small against its surroundings, the rough waves crashing off the bow as it glides through the water. There is a small section of the canvas in the bottom right-hand corner that Dixon has left unpainted, instead inscribing 'Cutty Sark, the famous British Windjammer'. James Dixon was born on Tory Island, Co. Donegal, the most remote of all Ireland’s off shore islands. Apart from an occasional visit to the mainland and one short period in the west of Ireland as a fishing instructor, Dixon spent most of his life there and was one of the most significant members of the highly regarded Tory Island school of primitive art. Dixon and other islanders painted what they saw around them in a distinctive detailed, naturalistic style: boats, the wild seas, the island and the small villages grandly named East Town and West Town. The artist Derek Hill organised exhibitions of the work of the Tory school painters, the first of which took place at the New Gallery, Belfast in 1966, with subsequent exhibitions in Dublin, Vienna and London. In 1990 a retrospective exhibition was held at the Glebe Gallery, Co. Donegal, and the Boole Library, University College Cork. James Dixon along with Alfred Wallis was also the subject of a major exhibition in 1999 that opened in IMMA before travelling to Tate St. Ives. Dixon's work is included in the collections of The Ulster Museum, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The Hugh Lane Gallery, Bournemouth Art Gallery as well as being well represented at Derek Hill’s Glebe House and Gallery in Churchill, Co. Donegal. Our thanks to Róisín Kennedy whose writings formed the basis of this catalogue note