Nelson Dawson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nelson Dawson (1859 - 1941) was a British artist and best known as a minor member of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Dawson was born in Lincolnshire and educated at Stamford School. Like many proponents of the Arts & Craft movement, he was a wealthy man and lived in London, where he operated his workshop first from Chelsea and in due course from the rear of his townhouse in Chiswick. He exhibited his art throughout England including at the Royal Academy and was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engravers.

As a potter, water-colour painter, jeweller, silversmith, etcher, print-maker and writer on artist subjects, his reputation has probably suffered because he spread his talents too thinly. Nevertheless, both the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum hold collections of his work and papers, and together with his wife, Edith Dawson, he was one of the key figures in the jewellery of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Together, they revived the Renaissance practice of enamelling in their jewellery. Since this required a small kiln, enamellers like Edith Dawson often became ill due to the toxic fumes emitted during the process. Edith learned enamelling from her husband who had learned from Alexander Fisher, a master enameller who in turn had learned his craft in France.

In 1901, Dawson founded The Artificers' Guild from his workshop in Chiswick but it was acquired by Montague Fordham (one time director of the Birmingham Guild of Handicrafts) in 1903.

He is noted for his maritime scenes, largely undertaken around the coasts of Yorkshire, Devon and Cornwall.

Dawson left many of his pictures to Stamford School. However, they were not stored or displayed properly and many of these were painted over and used by pupils as blank canvases.^[1]

[edit] Further Reading

Nelson and Edith Dawson, silversmiths and decorative artists: Victoria & Albert Museum papers, 1822-1939. AAD/1987/7, AAD/1988/8, AAD/1991/9, AAD/1992/4

[edit] Notes and references