The following
description for has been prepared entirely by the current owner, Roberts S.
Fastov, Esq., and, at the
collector’s request, has not been edited by Sloans & Kenyon
Note 1) The following biographical materials are taken from
the Askart.com website:
"Born in London, England, Dawson
Dawson-Watson was a landscape, portrait, genre, marine, and mural painter and
graphics artist who was the son of a popular English illustrator. He attended
grammar school at Southsea, Hampshire.
His
first art teacher was Mark Fisher, with whom he studied in Steyning, England. A
wealthy local brewer then sponsored Dawson-Watson's art training in Paris that
included classes with Carolus Duran. While in France, he also studied with
Louis-Joseph Raphael Collin and Pierre Paul Leon Glaize.
The
artist lived in Giverny, France near the home of Impressionist Claude Monet for
five years, 1884 to 1890, and in 1888 married an American women, Mary Hoyt
Sellar, who was traveling in Europe. They came to the United States in 1893 at
the encouragement of artist James Carroll Beckwith, and Dawson painted in New
England until 1897. He was hired as director of the Hartford Art Society in
Hartford, Connecticut.
In
1897, he returned to England but was not successful at making a living, and he
also spent three years in Canada. Returning to the United States, he taught
from 1903 to 1904 at Byrdcliffe Colony, a center for the Artist and Crafts
Movement in Woodstock, New York. This period was followed by teaching for
eleven years at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, serving as art director of a
pageant in Brandesville, Missouri, and in 1918, serving a year as director of
the San Antonio Art Guild.
In
1926, he settled permanently in San Antonio, encouraged by members of the San
Antonio Art League, and he participated in many exhibitions, often winning
prizes, including first place ($5,000) at the 1927 Edgar B. Davis Competition.
He also painted the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Murals include Meditation in
the Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio, and The Open Book of
Nature at Wichita High School in Kansas
Source:
John and Deborah Powers, Texas Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists
Peter
Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art"
Note 2): This Dawson-Watson
painting, “Picking A Posy,” is significantly different in complexity, French
Impressionist technique and sheer vitality and beauty from Watson’s well-known
numerous Texas landscapes with no human figures. It is magnificent in terms of
its subject matter, composition and mastery of French Impressionist technique,
palette and brush work manifested in sun-flooded outdoor scenes. was painted in
1891, shortly after Watson returned from his artistic studies in France, living
in Giverny from 1884-1890, near the home and studio of Claude Monet. This
painting is a premier, first class French Impressionist style work reflecting
Watson’s absorption of Impressionist sensibilities, techniques, high-key
coloring and subject matter and was executed contemporaneously with a similar
work by the American, Theodore Robinson, who came to Giverny 3 years later than
Watson, in 1887; but who stayed there until 1892; and is regarded by most
scholars as Monet’s favorite American follower. However, Robinson, who learned
to use Impressionist brush work and technique, did not adopt Monet’s high key
palette and flair, until after his return to the U.S. in 1892. Compare the
Watson painting being offered at this auction with a similar composition by
Robinson of a young woman lying on her back in a grassy field, but lacking in
flowers, entitled “In The Sun,” an oil painting (17.25" x 36"), which
was sold as lot 14 by Sotheby’s, New York on December 2, 2010 for $1,052,500,
which was below the presale estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. “In The Sun”
was created by Robinson in 1891, the same year as Watson created “Picking A
Posy.” See also the very high prices obtained for similar Robinson paintings.
“In The Sun”
(1)“A
Normandy Garden, October” by Robinson, an oil painting (18.2 x 22”), which was
sold as lot 103 by Christie’s, New York on May 24, 2007 for $1,496,000;
and“A Girl Raking Hay,” by Robinson,
an oil painting (18.5 x 15.5”), which was sold as lot 29 by Sotheby’s, New York
on May 18, 2005 for $800,000.
Note 3) No painting by Dawson-Watson
has been offered at auction between September 22, 1987 and May 25, 2011, that
is even close to being comparable in visual quality, esthetic appeal and pure
French Impressionistic technique with Dawson-Watson’s “Picking A Posy,” with
the exception of his "Among The Flowers, Giverny," and is well worth
the pre-sale estimate of $20,000-$40,000. The highest auction price ever paid
for a Dawson-Watson painting was "Among The Flowers, Giverny"
("28" x 35") and brought $60,000 on 11/29/2006 by Sotheby's, New
York. It had previously brought $58,750 on 11/29/2000 at Christie’s, New
York. Of the 133 auction offerings of Dawson-Watson works of art reported by
Askart.com, there was only 1 other oil painting by Dawson-Watson, "Tea on the Grass" (40" x 50") that brought
$51,000 on 3/23/2000, that
is somewhat comparable in subject matter to "Among
The Flowers, Giverny" and "Picking A Posy.” However, in the artistic
value hierarchy, the subject matter of a pretty blonde young girl wearing a
vivid red dress and cute black tam o’ shanter, who is kneeling and picking
white flowers in a grassy field littered with myriad of such white flowers
depicted in "Picking A Posy” is higher than the primary figural subject
matter in these two other paintings. However, "Among The Flowers,
Giverny" is a very attractive composition, and was painted at virtually
same time as "Picking A Posy,” which was painted in 1891, shortly after
Dawson-Watson left Giverny to return to England in 1890, and, in both
paintings, a female (but of different ages) is either picking or tending
flowers. However, in contrast with "Among The Flowers, Giverny," in
"Picking A Posy,” Dawson-Watson is depicting a very bright and strong
sunlight and using more Impressionistic brush-strokes, particularly with regard
to the myriad of pink and white flowers, with which he litters the meadow and
is much more vivid in his coloring of the young girl's face and red dress,
because of the very bright and strong sunlight that Dawson-Watson is seeking to
depict, which is at the heart of the Impressionist credo of making the quality
and nature of the sky and sun as they affect the human figures, staffage and
other objects and natural phenomena. All of the foregoing considerations in
this catalogue entry, including the above implications of the Robinson factor,
along with the fact that Dawson-Watson's softer, fuzzier, more broadly painted
landscapes, which have no figures in such compositions as reported in
Askart.com (below), almost all of which are pure landscapes comparable in size
of 20" or 21" x 16" to the 14" x 20" of "Picking
A Posy,” and which brought prices in the range of $20,000-$23,000 and two 20"
x 16" landscapes, that brought $27,485 and $31, 250 warrant the conclusion
that the presale estimate of $30,000-$50,000 for Picking A Posy” is reasonable
and justifiable.
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Title: "Bend in the Road" |
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Title: TEXAS HILL COUNTRY WITH BLOOMING CACTUS |
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Title: Cactus in Bloom |
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Title: Bend in the Road |
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Title: Cactus on a Hillside, 1935 |
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Title: Cactus in Bloom |
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Title: Cactus on a Hillside, 1935 |
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Title: Flowering Cactus on Gallagher Ranch |
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Title: Prickly Pear in Bloom |
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Title: Tea on the Grass |
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