BIOGRAPHY - Charles Dixon (1872 - 1934)

Dixon was a British maritime artist born in Goring-on-Thames on December 8, 1872. He was the son and student of Alfred Dixon (1842–1919), a successful genre painter. Over his career, Dixon created large oil paintings showing scenes from naval history and famous historical and contemporary ships. He also made watercolors of seasides, beaches, and rivers. Magazines like The Sphere, The Graphic, and The London Illustrated News frequently featured his work as illustrations. Dixon is also known for his paintings created during the First World War. Though not an official war artist, he served as a painter aboard British warships, allowing him to create war scenes like The Landing at Gallipoli. This painting was presented to the Australian Parliament in 1917 to commemorate British, Australian, and New Zealander soldiers killed during that campaign. Dixon exhibited fifty-two works at the Royal Academy throughout his career, his first when he was 16. Several of his works are now in Britain’s National Maritime Museum. In 1900 he was made a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. He lived at Itchenor in Sussex, where he was a keen yachtsman, and died at his home on September 12, 1934.