ADAM'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 27 MAY 2026

74 36 JAMES DIXON (1887-1970) Mr. Clark Passing Tormore, Tory Island, in His Yacht with a Whole Gale of S.W. Wind and Rain, with Jill and Others on Board after Leaving Greenport with Daybreak About the Year 1952. Household paint on brown paper, 63 x 81cm (24¾ x 32”) Signed and inscribed Provenance: From the collection of Wallace Clark; private collection, Northern Ireland. Exhibited: Co. Donegal, ‘ James Dixon - Retrospective ’, The Glebe Gallery, 31st July - 31st August, 1990. Dublin, Two Painters: Works by Alfred Wallis and James Dixon , touring exhibition, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 1st Septem- ber - 21st November 1999’ and travelling to Tate Gallery, St. Ives, May-November, 2000. Catalogue no. 38, page 70, illustrat- ed (full page) € 6,000 - 8,000 Wallace Clark (1926-2011) was an accomplished yachts- man, writer and author of the classic maritime volume, Sailing Round Ireland. Clark circumnavigated Ireland, and all her islands, for the first time in 1951 and again in 1954. These voyages ultimately inspired him to write his classic sailing log. On these explorations he bonded with island- ers and fisherfolk who shared his instinct for negotiating difficult waters. He met James Dixon on Tory Island in the early 1950s while sailing on his 36ft Bermudan yawl, ‘Wild Goose’. Dixon was the most significant member of the Tory Island school of primitive art. The two remained close friends until the artists death in 1970. Both men shared a passion for the sea. Dixon was a fish- erman by trade who took up painting in his later life but his affinity to the sea never waned and as a subject it was a constant throughout his work. He painted what he saw around him in his distinctive naturalistic style: boats, the wild seas, and the islands, while Clark sought to capture the same in his writing. A series of letters from Dixon to Clark dated from the late 50s and early 1960s reflect this shared passion, the impetus for writing often relating to boats, new ones that have been purchased, things that are needed for their mainte- nance. While news from the ‘Island’ as Dixon refers to it are focused on weather and its impact on whether he has been able to go out fishing. Dixon often painted works relating to Clark’s marine adventures, most notably his 1963 journey from Derry to Iona in a currach, a recreation of St Columba’s voyage of the same route, (Mr Wallace Clark and Crew and The Voyage to Iona, sold these salerooms, May 29th, 2024). Both understood the hardship of life at sea, as Dixon re- marked ‘there is nothing romantic about little boats fighting with crashing waves and winds’ (Quoted to Derek Hill 1993). This inclement weather is captured in the present work as Clark’s boat, thrashed by wind and waves passes in front of the imposing cliff faces of Tormore. The crew are watched over by sea birds perched on rocky outposts while others circle over the open water. Clark and his crew had spent the night anchored at Greenport but had to depart in haste due the changing weather. This work is a very early example of Dixon’s painted in the early 1950s, with quite rudimentary materials of household paint on brown paper, reflecting clear desire to make works despite not having access to professional art supplies. Tormore, a knife-edge point from which Tory Island, seven miles off the Bloody Foreland, takes its name was painted some years before the famous artist Derek Hill started to summer on the island, who then assisted Dixon with better art materials. In another later let- ter to Clark dated February 1965, Dixon relates that he has thirteen pictures ready but is waiting for ‘Mr Hill’ to return home in April before he can send any on to Clark reflecting the challenges of selling and promoting his art from the remoteness of Tory Island. Niamh Corcoran, April 2026