Muldoon and the nets, Tory Island

Details

James Dixon (1887-1970)
Muldoon and the nets, Tory Island
signed, inscribed and dated indistinctly 'By James Dixon/Tory Island/3/3/1916/Tory Island with a catch/of Fish in a Gully Back of/Tory Island at Muldoon/went through the/fish all went away' (lower right)
oil on paper laid on board
21½ x 29 in. (54.6 x 73.6 cm.)

Provenance

with Rona Gallery, London, where purchased by the present owner, February 1996.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 16 December 2010, lot 126, where purchased by the present owner.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Lot Essay

Dixon was a fisherman by trade who took up painting late in life. Like his St Ives counterpart, Alfred Wallis, Dixon never received any formal art training and was taken up by a professional artist who introduced his work to the contemporary art world.

While St Ives and Alfred Wallis proved inspirational for Ben Nicholson, Tory Island presented a romantic retreat for Derek Hill, the artist who discovered Dixon. Again, this association with the romanticism of the place has led to certain aspects of the artists' works being celebrated above others, in particular their portrayal of the sea and boats.

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