James Dixon painting leads sale – Antique Collecting

A work by self-taught Irish painter James Dixon (1887–1970) has sold for £6,000 at auction, topping the best-sellers in The Cotswold Auction Company’s recent sale.

The painting, West End Village, an oil on paper mounted on board, sold for a hammer of £6,000, above its estimate of £3,000 to £5,000.

Dixon, who started to paint in his 60s, spent his entire life on Tory Island, a small island off the Irish coast.

At a legendary chance meeting in the 1950s with English painter Derek Hill, a regular visitor to Tory Island, Dixon told the artist ‘I could do that’ before astonishing him with his mastery of brushwork, painting using implements made with hair from his donkey’s tail.

Originally a fisherman, Dixon painted seascapes and coastal scenes among other subjects.

Other top sellers in the auction included two works by renowned sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Frink.

An etching and aquatint of a horse rolling over, estimated at £1,500 to £2,000, sold for £2,500, while Man and Horse III, a lithograph estimated at £700 to £800, brought £1,500.

A large painting by PJ Crook entitled The Angel, The Lion and The Infants, estimated at £1,500 to £2,500, sold for £1,900.

Crook’s work is often featured on album covers by progressive rock band King Crimson, fronted by guitar innovator Robert Fripp.

And a tall Poole Studio stoneware vase smashed through its estimate of £50 to £80 to make £1,550.

Director Elizabeth Poole said: “We had a fantastic selection of pictures in our specialist modern art and design sale this time round. There was strong interest on the phone and in the room on a wide range of artworks, including the James Dixon oil, works by PJ Crook, and the two pictures by Elizabeth Frink.”