Dawson, Montague

Dawson, Montague (1895–1973). British marine painter, born in Chiswick, London (not at sea, as is stated in some books). He had no formal artistic training, but he inherited a love of ships and of painting from his father (an engineer-cum-inventor who was an enthusiastic yachtsman) and his grandfather (who was a successful landscape painter). In 1910 he began work in a commercial art studio in London, and on the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the Royal Navy. While on duty in Falmouth he met the painter Charles Napier Hemy (1841–1917), who was renowned for his seascapes, and Dawson was greatly influenced by him. After the war he became a full-time painter and illustrator and from the 1920s he worked under contract to the art dealers Frost & Reed. Through them his work became very well known in reproduction (see POPULAR PRINTS) and he was acknowledged as king of the ‘clipper ship school', his most characteristic subject being a graceful vessel under full sail ploughing majestically through blue seas under a serene sky. Such paintings have many admirers, although his detractors find Dawson's work chocolate-boxey and repetitive. There are examples in the National Maritime Museum, London, and the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.