Lot 98: James Dixon (1887-1970) Gut Fishing, in Camus

James Dixon (1887-1970) Gut Fishing, in Camus More, Tory Island Oil on paper, 55 x 75cm (21½ x 29½'') Signed, inscribed and dated ''Gut Fishing in Camus More/Tory Island/by James Dixon/14.10.64'' Provenance: Sold in these room, ''Important Irish Art'' sale, December 2006, Cat. No. 174, where purchased by current owner James Dixon is probably Irelands only true Primitive painter having very rarely ever ventured away from his native Tory Island off the Northwest coast of Donegal. His discovery by the painter Derek Hill is now legend. Observing Mr Hill painting a landscape of the West End Village on Tory he is said to have remarked ''I think I could do better''. Hill immediately encouraged him by sending him paints. Dixon preferred to work on paper and when offered paint brushes he said he would make his own out of hair from his Donkey. Hill organised exhibitions of the work of the Tory painters, the first of which took place at the New Gallery,Belfast in 1966 but following on shortly afterwards he had exhibitions at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin, Autodidaky Gallery,Vienna and the Portal Gallery, London. His work entered the collections of The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The Hugh Lane Gallery and Bournemouth Art Gallery. His legacy lives on in what is now referred to as the Tory Island School of painting. Homage was paid to him when in 2000 there was a joint exhibition with that other famous primitive painter Alfred Wallis, organised by the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Gallery St. Ives, Cornwall