BY SAMUEL DIXON, CIRCA 1750

Samuel Dixon of Capel Street, Dublin, announced the establishment of his shop and advertised his first set of 'flower pieces, in Basso Relievo' in Faulkner's Dublin Journal on 26 April 1748. The set of twelve were described as 'ornamental to Lady's Chambers, but useful to paint and draw after, or imitate in Shell or Needle Work'. The works offered here relate to three watercolours bearing Dixon's label in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg, though the latter are rendered in `ordinary technique’, ie not embossed. They are depicted on black grounds and are likely to be contemporaneous with his early flower pictures.
The compositions were often ribbon-tied bouquets of flowers, almost certainly influenced by the great Dutch and French painters such as G.D.Ehret, Louis Tessier and J.B.Monnoyer. Comparable examples are illustrated in Ada K. Longfield, 'Samuel Dixons's embossed pictures of Flowers and Birds', Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, vol. XVIII, no.4, 1975, p.115, fig.5, and 'More about Samuel Dixon and his Imitators', Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, vol. XXIII, nos.1 & 2, 1980, pp. 3 and 4, figs. 2 & 3.
Another set of six of slightly larger size was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 13 November 2018, lot 2 (£26,250 including premium) and another set of eight was sold from the collection of Mrs Henry Ford II, Christie's, London, 15 April 2021, lot 47 (£30,000 including premium).

Gustavus Hamilton was a painter employed around 1750 by Samuel Dixon. Writing of Dixon's establishment in his Recollections, the painter and actor John O'Keefe (1747-1833) noted the pictures 'were painted by three youths of considerable merit: the eldest James Riley: Gustavus Hamilton, the son of a clergyman: and my brother Daniel. They lived in Dickson's house and had a table and everything comfortable and respectable'. While employed all three remained students in the Dublin Society's drawing school and later became miniature painters of merit.