James Dixon (1887 -1970) Wild Goose Oil on paper, 40 x 49cm...

Hammer

€6,500

James Dixon (1887 -1970) Wild Goose Oil on paper, 40 x 49cm Signed, dated and inscribed 'Mr Wallace Clark arriving to Tory Island to see some of his friends. By James Dixon 9.5.65' Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist and hence by descent Wallace Clark (1926-2011) was an accomplished yachtsman, writer and author of the classic maritime volume, Sailing Round Ireland. Clark circumnavigated Ireland, and all her islands, for the first time in 1951 and again in 1954. These voyages ultimately inspired him to write his classic sailing log. On these explorations he bonded with islanders and fisherfolk who shared his instinct for negotiating difficult waters. He met James Dixon on Tory Island in the early 1950s while sailing on his 36ft Bermudan yawl, ‘Wild Goose’. Dixon was the most significant member of the Tory Island school of primitive art. The two remained close friends until the artists death in 1970. Dixon and Clark both shared a passion for the sea. Dixon painted what he saw around him in his distinctive detailed, naturalistic style: boats, the wild seas, and the islands. Clark sought to capture the same in his writing. Clark wrote “The islands of Ireland lie round her shoreline like water drops fallen from the head of a swimmer and like water drops they glisten in many colours”. In Wild Goose, Dixon has depicted Clark at the bow of his yawl, sheltered by Tory Island, with a group of well wishers standing quayside awaiting stories of his travels. A similarly titled work by Dixon is part of the National Galleries of Scotland collection. Clark’s many sailing expeditions included a re-creation of St Colmcille’s sea voyage from Derry to Iona off Scotland 1,400 years earlier. After his precarious crossing in a curragh, St Colmcille founded an abbey on Iona, a base for Celtic Christianity in the Scottish pagan kingdoms. Clark’s endeavour garnered considerable interest in 1961 and was widely reported. Both Dixon and Letitia Hamilton were inspired to paint Clark’s voyage to Iona. Hamilton, part of Clark’s artistic circle of friends, painted her tribute to the voyage in the year before her death, despite her failing eyesight, and gifted it to Clark. (lot 12) Dixon’s two paintings of the voyage pay homage not only to Clark and his crew, but to St Colmcille and his legacy.