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Francis S. Dixon

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Francis S. Dixon

Francis Stillwell Dixon (Sept 18, 1879 - Jan 6, 1967) was an American Impressionist painter known for landscapes and seascape paintings.

Biography

Dixon's grandfather, the Honorable James W. Dixon was a United States Senator from Connecticut from 1857 to 1869. His father Captain James Wyllys Dixon was a Civil War officer and journalist.[1]

Dixon was born in Queens, Long Island to a prominent and affluent family. He had nine siblings and was named after his mother Frances Stillwell.[1]

He honed his skills as a painter at the Art Students League in New York alongside Frank Vincent DuMond, Robert Henri, Charles W. Hawthorne and Herbert S. Twachtman. During World War I, Dixon was a singer for the War Department in New York City. He was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the Revolution, Allied Artists of America (NY), Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the Players and the Dutch Treat Club and the Salmagundi Club, where he performed for years. In the twenties, Dixon traveled to Bermuda, England and Europe painting local scenes before settling in Manhattan in the thirties.[1][2][3][4]

Dixon's first wife was Rosalie Turner Hooker, daughter of Senator Edward W. Hooker, Mayor of Hartford from 1908-1910, and descendant of the founder of Hartford, Connecticut.[5] They married in Salinas, California on August 10, 1915. Dixon had been the best man at Hooker's first wedding, which was to Dixon's cousin, Professor William C. Welling.[6][7][8][9] Dixon and Hooker had a son, Francis Stillwell Dixon Jr., but divorced in Paris in 1925 on the grounds of abandonment.[10][11] A year later Rosalie became a princess by marrying Prince Leva Melikov de Somhitie whose family once ruled Georgia in Russia.[1][12][13][14]

While in California between 1915 and 1917, Dixon stayed in Carmel and Point Lobos. The latter being where he painted The Leaning Tree, which was included in Elizabeth M. Kornhauser’s, “American Paintings before 1945” and is a part of a permanent collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.[15][16]

On February 5, 1938, Dixon's son, Francis Stillwell Dixon Jr., a Navy sailor, married his first wife Renee Barat Fannon. They had a child, Kent H. Dixon, and lived many years as socialites on Sunset Island Three in Miami.[17][18][19][20][21] Mary H. Hooker, mother-in-law, to Dixon and grandmother of Dixon Jr., bequeathed to Dixon Jr. a trust account upon her death in 1945.[22]

Dixon would later marry Emilie A. Mcmillan in 1929.[4][23] He died at their home in New York City at the age of eighty-seven.[24] In 1996, Kent Dixon loaned forty-three of his grandfather's tonal oil paintings to the Springfield Museum of Art for a six-week show.[25] In 2006, he had a record sale of $22,800 at Shannon's auction for one of his oil on canvas paintings, A Summer Sail.[16][26][27] His great-grandsons Laird S. Dixon, a sculptor, and Kevin H. Dixon, an underground comic book artist, followed in Dixon's artistic footsteps.[28][29][30]

Selected collections

  • Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut
  • Morgan Memorial, Hartford, Connecticut

Selected exhibitions

  • Springfield Museum of Art, Ohio, 1996
  • Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina, 1948
  • Number 10 Gallery, New York, 1941 (solo)
  • Allied Artists of America, New York, 1940
  • Barbizon-Plaza Galleries, New York, 1939
  • Studio Guild Galleries, New York, 1937
  • Women's University Club, New York, 1937 (solo)
  • Babcock Galleries, New York, 1926, 1927 (solo)
  • National Academy of Design, New York, 1925
  • Salmagundi Club, New York, 1917-1940, 1943, 1945, 1956
  • Society of Independent Artists, New York, 1917-18, 1920-22, 1924
  • Folson Gallery, New York, 1917 (solo)
  • The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1916

Selected works

  • The Leaning Tree
  • Impressionist spring landscape
  • Impressionist landscape
  • New England winter landscape
  • Landscape
  • Waves crashing on a rocky coast
  • Winter
  • Winter Landscapes
  • Town nestled under snow-capped mountains
  • A Summer Sail
  • Two Autumn Landscapes
  • Near Farmington, Conn.
  • Green Spring
  • Evening
  • Moonpath

References

  1. ^ a b c d Fleming, Geoffrey K. "Francis Dixon - Biography". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  2. ^ "Francis Stilwell Dixon". Bellus Fine Art. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  3. ^ "Francis Stillwell Dixon - Cows in Field Painting For Sale". www.bedfordfineartgallery.com. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  4. ^ a b "Francis Dixon, Landscape Artist, 87, Dies". The Los Angeles Times. 9 Jan 1967. p. 42. Retrieved 2024-01-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Finds Prince On Steamer Bound Home". Hartford Courant. 23 May 1926. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-01-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Rosalie Turner Hooker Arnold (1892-1973) - Find a..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  7. ^ "William C. Welling And Miss Rosalie Hooker Wed". Hartford Courant. 4 Oct 1911. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-01-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Divorcee to Marry Husband's Best Man". The Washington Times. 13 Aug 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-01-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "News Oddities". The Semi-Weekly New Era. 14 Aug 1915. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-01-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "American Wife Gets a Divorce in Paris". Sioux City Journal. 28 Oct 1925. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-01-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Mrs Dixon, Formerly of Hartford, Wins Divorce". The Boston Globe. 28 Oct 1925. p. 32. Retrieved 2024-01-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Carlson, Angie (2001-11-21). "A Family Affair". INDY Week. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  13. ^ "PRINCE LEVAN MELIKOV DIES OF APPENDICITIS; His Family Once Ruled Georgia in Russia--Widow the Former Mrs. Francis S. Dixon". The New York Times. 1928-01-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  14. ^ "Prince Levan Melikov de Somhetie (1893-1928) -..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  15. ^ Kornhauser, Elizabeth M. (31 Jan 1997). American Paintings Before 1945. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300066715.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  16. ^ a b "Dixon". bluehillbaygallery.com. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  17. ^ "Obituaries - Fletcher, Renee Barat". Springfield News-Sun. 1 Oct 2006. p. 31. Retrieved 2024-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Personally Speaking: About People You Know". The Miami Herald. 22 Nov 1947. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Miamians Will End Long Stay In Canada". The Miami Herald. 29 Oct 1938. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Marriages, Divorces, Vital Statistics - Mirriage Licenses". The Miami News. 6 Feb 1938. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Francis Stillwell Dixon Jr. (1916-1986) - Find a..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  22. ^ "Legal Notices - Estate of Mary M. Hooker". Hartford Courant. 16 Nov 1945. p. 21. Retrieved 2024-01-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Francis Dixon". kdeanfineart. Retrieved 2024-01-29.
  24. ^ "FRANCIS S. DIXON, 87, LANDSCAPE PAINTER". The New York Times. 1967-01-07. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  25. ^ Lincicome, Glen (8 Aug 1996). "Landscapes and seascapes by Francis Stillwell Dixon and Russell Chatham will be on display at the Springfield Museum of Art starting Aug. 24". Springfield News-Sun. p. 13. Retrieved 2024-01-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Francis Stillwell Dixon". MutualArt. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  27. ^ "Biography". MutualArt. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
  28. ^ Currin, Grayson Haver (2005-07-06). "Art lair". INDY Week. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  29. ^ Carlson, Angie (2001-11-21). "A Family Affair". INDY Week. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  30. ^ "Obituaries - Fletcher, Renee Barat". Springfield News-Sun. 1 Oct 2006. p. 31. Retrieved 2024-01-26 – via Newspapers.com.
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