Joseph Adams private Dawson collection 1

Joseph Adams private Dawson collection 2

Nelson Ethelred Dawson (5 May 1859 – 28 October 1941) was an English artist and member of the Arts and Crafts movement. Dawson was born in Stamford,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

and educated at Stamford School. He moved to London, where he operated his workshop first from

Manresa Road Manresa Road is a street in Chelsea, London, that has been called "the third most expensive street in England". Location The street runs roughly north to south, from Chelsea Square to King's Road. The Hampshire School is based at no 15. Hist ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

(shared with Ernest Dade) 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 The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wat ...

and a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. As a potter, watercolour painter, jeweller, silversmith, metalworker, etcher, print-maker and writer on artistic subjects, his reputation has probably suffered because he spread his talents too thinly. Nevertheless, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

and

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

at Greenwich hold collections of his work and papers. He married Edith Robinson in 1893 and together with his wife, he was one of the key figures in the jewellery of the Arts and Crafts movement. Edith learned enamelling from her husband who had been taught by Alexander Fisher, a master enameller who in turn had learned his craft in France. Together, they revived the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

practice of enamelling in their jewellery. The bronze organ grill in Holy Trinity church, Sloane Street, Chelsea (described by Poet Laureate, John Betjeman as the "Cathedral of the Arts & Crafts Movement") is Dawson’s work and it takes its place beside treasures by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

and

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

. Other commissions included a trowel and mallet used by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

in her last public appearance, laying the foundation stone of the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1899, the casket presented to U.S. President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

on his visit to England en route to the

Paris Peace Conference, 1919 Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, lavish bath fittings for

Viscount Hambleden Viscount Hambleden, of Hambleden in the County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1891 (as Viscountess Hambleden) for Emily Danvers Smith, in honour of her deceased husband, the businessman and C ...

in copper and silver, and the gates of

Hull Guildhall The Guildhall is a building on Alfred Gelder Street in the City of Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The building is currently the headquarters of Hull City Council but is also used as a venue for conferences, civic recepti ...

. 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 and School of Handicrafts) in 1903. He is noted for his maritime scenes. In 1910 he made a visit to the Étaples art colony. After the death of Edith in 1929, he married Ada Rose Mansell. At his death in 1941, Dawson left many of his pictures to Stamford School but although a number of etchings and watercolours still decorate the walls of the school, not all were stored or displayed properly and some canvasses were even painted over by pupils. A retrospective of his work at Stamford Museum closed on 26 January 2008.

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Library in 2009 hosted an exhibition of his marine views called Etched by the Sea. A blue plaque marks his birthplace in Stamford.

References

External links

Georgetown University Art Collection - 2009 Exhibition "Etched by the Sea, Marine Views of Nelson Dawson"

Lincs to the Past website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Nelson Arts and Crafts movement artists English watercolourists English etchers English silversmiths English goldsmiths British jewellery designers People educated at Stamford School 1859 births 1941 deaths People from Stamford, Lincolnshire English enamellers 19th-century enamellers 20th-century enamellers 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists

References

Further reading

External links