Charles Temple Dix was born in Albany, New York, the youngest son of the distinguished statesman and soldier, General John Adams Dix. Having already visited Europe as a child, Dix returned with his family to Italy from 1853 to 1855. Dix’s decision to become an artist was enthusiastically supported by his father, and after graduation from Union College, Schenectady, New York, Dix continued his art studies in New York City in the late 1850s. Dix quickly immersed himself in the New York art world. He occupied a studio at the famous Tenth Street Studio building from 1860 to 1862, and he exhibited annually at the National Academy of Design, New York, from 1857 to 1861, the year in which he was elected an associate of that institution. He never submitted the diploma painting required for qualification as a full member.
Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Dix joined the Union army, serving as a major and acting as his father’s aide-de-camp. His creative output during this period was curtailed by his involvement in wartime activities. In March 1865, at the close of the war, Dix resumed his artistic career. He left for Europe, spending the winter in Rome and visiting England sometime thereafter. It appears that he remained for at least some time, for in 1867 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, London. In 1868, he married Camilla Ottilie Watson, niece of the art historian, Mrs. Anne Brownell Jameson, in London, and the married couple soon settled in Rome. In January 1873, Dix joined other American artists in Rome in signing a resolution mourning the death of the much-admired Hudson River School painter, John F. Kensett. Dix’s brief period in Rome ended two months later, when he died at the age of 35 of a sudden hemorrhage of the lungs.
In the course of his short and promising career, Dix had established himself as a popular and successful painter of marine subjects, and he was one of the few such painters to elicit praise regularly from contemporary critics. In his Book of the Artists (1867), Henry Tuckerman called Dix a painter “of rare promise and no inconsiderable performance in the sphere of marine landscape” (p. 552), an unfortunately ironic forecast of the artist’s brief career.
Beginning about 1866, when he first wintered in Rome, Dix painted a number of marine subjects of the island of Capri. Marina Grand, Capri dates from that winter, before Dix’s trip to England and his subsequent marriage and relocation to Rome. Dix evidently traveled to the island, returning to Rome with sketches of its coastal scenery. Located on the northern side of the island, the Marina Grande was the chief port on Capri. Dix frames the composition at right with the large, rocky cliffs characteristic of Capri’s coastline, while the sweep of the water opens to the left. Dix’s use of color is deep and clear, faithfully capturing the incomparable range of blues of the Mediterranean sea and sky. All of the elements of the picture—rocks, clouds, boats, and water—are treated with careful accuracy, reflecting a truth-to-nature aesthetic as espoused by the influential English critic, John Ruskin, and echoing similar concerns with the rocky coast landscape as fellow American marine artist, William Stanley Haseltine. Marina Grande, Capri is remarkable in that the artist was only 28 years old when he painted it, and it leads one to speculate as to what Dix might have accomplished had he enjoyed a longer life and career.
(Biography provided by Hirschl & Adler)
Marina Grande, Capri
By Charles Temple Dix
Located in New York, NY
Charles Temple Dix was born in Albany, New York, the youngest son of the distinguished statesman and soldier, General John Adams Dix. Having already visited Europe as a child, Dix re...
Canvas, Oil
$2,750
H 26 in W 48 in D 1 in
“Penobscot” Ship Portrait Sidewheeler Steamboat Paddle Steamer Oil on Canvas
Located in Yardley, PA
A wonderful realistic portrait of the Penobscot, a mid-19th century coastal sidewheel steamer, rendered in Cameron’s hallmark marine portrait style - technically meticulous, historically informed, and visually serene. Executed with crisp linework and a soft, luminous palette, the ship is shown in profile navigating calm Atlantic waters under both steam and sail, her red paddle box emblazoned boldly with her name. Commissioned in 1843 by Menemon Sanford’s Steamship Line and constructed in New York, the Penobscot was a near twin to her sister ship, the Kennebec, but became especially prized for her seaworthiness. Measuring 228 feet in length with a 48-foot beam and twin 14-foot paddlewheels, she carried schooner rigging fore and aft, providing the added stability necessary for coastal and offshore passages. Initially assigned to the Maine coastal excursion routes, she would later be reassigned to the elite New York–Philadelphia line and eventually sold and renamed Norfolk for pre-Civil War service along the southern coast. This work is oil on canvas and is signed in the lower right. It is housed in its original black frame and retains the artist’s description of the ship on the reverse. Size: 22 inches tall by 44 inches wide (painting) 26 inches tall by 48 inches wide by 1 inch deep (frame) Provenance: Private collection; Acquired from the above About the artist: A Delaware artist, Scott Cameron paints the simple elegance of the America’s Cup races, serene coastal marsh scenes, timeless landscape vistas and historic steamboats in a style reminiscent of the era in which they reigned. An admirer of Andrew Wyeth and the Brandywine School of painters, Scott has combined the detail and quiet stillness of that School in his landscapes with the Luminist School’s sense of light glowing from within. A soft gentle atmosphere seems to fall over each scene adding to the peacefulness of the setting, and a sense of a time gone by. His America’s Cup scenes capture the action at a moment in time, allowing the beauty of the wind-filled sails to become the central design element of each painting. Scott Cameron has exhibited his oil paintings in numerous national and regional shows from the Mystic Seaport Museum to solo and group shows in some of the foremost galleries throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Favorite painting locations are the waterways and coastal inlets of Martha’s Vineyard and Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the gentle rolling landscapes of rural Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Meticulous research is behind every historic steamboat and America’s Cup painting...
Canvas, Oil
$3,200
H 16 in W 24 in D 2 in
Realist Landscape Original Oil Painting- Small Green Tonal Midwestern Scene
Located in Marco Island, FL
This is a great American landscape painting by the artist, Clyde Singer. Gorgeous tonal shades of green and grey depict a stormy midwestern landscape. Framed 16 x 24 inches Canva...
Canvas, Oil
$1,054Sale Price|25% Off
H 14.18 in W 10.63 in
Street of the Old Quarter British School signed Cade oil on canvas painting
Located in Sitges, Barcelona
**Technical Sheet** **Title:** "Street of the Old Quarter" **Author:** British School, 19th Century **Date:** 1892 **Technique:** Oil on canvas **Dimensions:** 14.17 x 10.63 inc...
Oil, Canvas
$6,500
H 22 in W 30 in
"Snowy City Scene" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid-20th Century Modern
Located in New York, NY
"Snowy City Scene" American Scene Social Realism WPA Era Mid-20th Century Modern Syd J. Browne (1907-1991) "Snowy City Scene" 22 x 30 inches Oil on canvas. c. 1930s Signed lower lef...
Canvas, Oil
$7,500
H 19.5 in W 15.5 in D 1.5 in
“Eastern White Pines, c. 1910”, New England Landscape, Signed Oil Painting
By Charles Warren Eaton
Located in Yardley, PA
“Eastern White Pines, c. 1910” by Charles Warren Eaton (American, 1857-1937). A wonderful example of Eaton’s renowned compositions of Eastern white pine trees in his mature style. A...
Canvas, Oil, Board
$11,000
H 29 in W 25 in D 2 in
Bill Bally Blacksmithing- American Scene. Americana Bicycle Minnesota
Located in Marco Island, FL
American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Bill Bally Blacksmithing (1987), where he depicts a woman riding her bicycle by a historic and quintessential Minnesota busin...
Oil, Canvas
$9,500
H 10.2 in W 20.2 in
The Day's Catch. American Indian Mid-Century Scene Painting with Canoe.
By Herbert Herget
Located in Marco Island, FL
A Native American scene entitled, The Day's Catch, shows a man fishing the river from his canoe with a net. Though mostly tonal, the sky and distant landscape pop with blue blue-gr...
Canvas, Oil
$84,000
H 25 in W 39 in
Before the Deluge, Republican Headquarters before Landon lost to Roosevelt.
Located in Marco Island, FL
In 1936, Alfred Landon and Frank Knox were the Republican candidates for President and Vice President. They were defeated in a landslide by Franklin Roosevelt. Clyde Singer captures ...
Oil, Canvas
Outlaw Mesa Shadows
Located in Salt Lake City, UT
Outlaw Mesa Shadows, oil on canvas 17 x 30 inches (Framed size: 18 x 31 inches), $2,900 Leslie Thomas returned to painting after working 20 years as a computer engineer. She has since studied painting under Mark Knudsen...
Canvas, Oil
$25,000
H 30 in W 38 in
NYC EL American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Era Figurative
By Cecil Crosley Bell
Located in New York, NY
NYC EL American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Era Figurative Cecil Bell (1906 – 1970) Street Life Under the EL 22 x 30 inches Oil on canvas, c. 1930s Signed upper...
Canvas, Oil
$14,000
H 23 in W 45 in D 1 in
Patched Front. Original Urban American Street Scene Painting.
Located in Marco Island, FL
American city scene of a man on the sidewalk with an umbrella in front of storefronts with a geometric facade. American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Patched Fron...
Canvas, Oil
$14,000
H 52 in W 43 in D 3 in
London Round House-Mid-Century Industrial American Scene Oil Painting
By Jack Steele
Located in Marco Island, FL
A mid-century American Realist scene of children playing on the railroad entitled, London Round House. The chaotic scene of children rambunctiously playing is suspected to be set in...
Canvas, Oil