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Lot Essay
Montague Dawson, R.S.M.A., F.R.S.A. was born in Chiswick in 1895. Dawson's grandfather, Henry, had been a successful landscape painter and the old man's artistic abilities were inherited by his grandson. Fascinated by ships and the sea from an early age, Montague's interest was further stimulated when the family moved to a house bordering onto Southampton Water which proved the perfect location to nurture his latent talent. At the age of fifteen he commenced employment in a commercial art studio in Bedford Row, London, at which point he learned the craft of illustration from his work on posters. When the Great War began in 1914, Dawson became a naval officer and spent several years serving in armed trawlers and minesweepers, yet all the time continuing to draw becoming an illustrator and contributor to the magazines The Sphere, Tatler and The Illustrated London News.
During periods of shore-leave, Dawson like to visit Charles Napier Hemy, an established marine painter then living at Falmouth. Hemy was to have a profound influence on Dawson's career (an influence which is evident in the present work) and it was probably due to him that Dawson became a professional artist once the War ended. Dawson's early works were mostly in watercolour but once he had allied himself to the London dealers Frost & Reed in the mid-1920s, his favoured medium became oil and his reputation began to grow.
The outbreak of the Second World War brought new opportunities for work even though his ineligibility for service in the Royal Navy due to his age was a great disappointment to him. Nevertheless, his prolific output for The Sphere once again placed his name before a wider audience and he was probably the most well-known living marine artist by 1945. The post-War years brought even greater successes and in the 1960s, when his career was at its peak, the widespread reproduction of his pictures in many different forms was so extensive that he had become a veritable household name, a rare accolade for an artist in British society, by the time he died in 1973.
During periods of shore-leave, Dawson like to visit Charles Napier Hemy, an established marine painter then living at Falmouth. Hemy was to have a profound influence on Dawson's career (an influence which is evident in the present work) and it was probably due to him that Dawson became a professional artist once the War ended. Dawson's early works were mostly in watercolour but once he had allied himself to the London dealers Frost & Reed in the mid-1920s, his favoured medium became oil and his reputation began to grow.
The outbreak of the Second World War brought new opportunities for work even though his ineligibility for service in the Royal Navy due to his age was a great disappointment to him. Nevertheless, his prolific output for The Sphere once again placed his name before a wider audience and he was probably the most well-known living marine artist by 1945. The post-War years brought even greater successes and in the 1960s, when his career was at its peak, the widespread reproduction of his pictures in many different forms was so extensive that he had become a veritable household name, a rare accolade for an artist in British society, by the time he died in 1973.