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Montague Dawson: A Moonlight Scrap

Creator: Montague Dawson
Offered by: Wick Antiques LTD

Description
Montague Dawson: A Moonlight Scrap. This dramatic watercolour on paper shows a WWI R-class destroyer escorting a battleship through a night-time encounter in choppy seas. The moon has emerged from behind scudding clouds to illuminate her bow as she makes smoke to mask the battleship behind her. An enemy ship can be seen on her port side and the waterspout from a shell can be seen clearly to starboard. All three ships are firing their guns, the orange flashes bright in the darkness. Written in pencil on the reverse ‘A Moonlight scrap’. English, circa 1915.

Montague Dawson RMSA, FRSA (1890–1973) was the son of a keen yachtsman and the grandson of the marine painter Henry Dawson (1811–1878). He served in the Dazzle Painting Section at Leith in WWI and in 1924 was the official artist for an Expedition to the South Seas by the steam yacht St.George. He was present at the final surrender of the German High Seas Fleet and many of his illustrations depicting the event were published in The Sphere. After the war, Dawson established himself as a professional marine artist, concentrating on historical subjects and portraits of deep-water sailing ships often in a stiff breeze or on high seas. During WWII he was once again employed as a war artist and again worked for The Sphere. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Society of Marine Artists, of which he was a member, from 1946 to 1964, and occasionally at the Royal Academy between 1917 and 1936. He was considered one of the greatest living marine artists, whose patrons included two American Presidents, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson, as well as the British Royal Family.

Height: 15 inches (38cm) Width: 22½ inches (57cm)
Framed height: 27 inches (68.5cm) Width: 34½ inches (86.5cm)

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Origin:	England
Period:	1900-1919
Materials:	watercolour
Condition:	Good.
Creation Date:	Circa 1915
Styles / Movements:	Realism
Incollect Reference #:	737012

Dimensions

W.	34.5 in;	H.	27 in;
W.	87.63 cm;	H.	68.58 cm;

Message from Seller:

Wick Antiques was established by Charles Wallrock in the early 1980s. Having grown up in the Antiques world Charles developed an extensive wealth of knowledge. Starting out as a ‘man with a van’ he quickly gained a good reputation and embarked on a longstanding relationship with Harrods. He was later joined by his wife, Caroline Wallrock. Caroline having completed a Persian degree, went on to study at Christie’s fine art and then joined Sotheby’s specializing in Islamic and Japanese works of art