ATTRIBUTED TO SAMUEL DIXON, CIRCA 1750

Samuel Dixon of Capel Street, Dublin, announced the establishment of his shop and advertised his first set of 'flower pieces, in Basso Relievo' in Faulkner's Dublin Journal on 26 April 1748. The set of twelve were described as 'ornamental to Lady's Chambers, but useful to paint and draw after, or imitate in Shell or Needle Work'. The works offered here in `ordinary technique' (ie not embossed) correspond to three watercolours bearing Dixon's label in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg. Both are depicted on black grounds and are likely to be contemporaneous with his early flower pictures.
The compositions were often ribbon-tied bouquets of flowers, almost certainly influenced by the great Dutch and French painters such as G.D.Ehret, Louis Tessier and J.B.Monnoyer. Comparable examples are illustrated in Ada K. Longfield, 'Samuel Dixons's embossed pictures of Flowers and Birds', Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, vol. XVIII, no.4, 1975, p.115, fig.5, and 'More about Samuel Dixon and his Imitators', Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, vol. XXIII, nos.1 & 2, 1980, pp. 3 and 4, figs. 2 & 3.

A pair of similar flower pictures was sold Christie's, London, 23 September 2010, lot 181 (£5,250 including premium) and another set of five was sold Christie's, London, 26 January 2011, lot 6 (£13,750 inc' prem')