Francis Stillwell Dixon - (American, 1879 - 1967)   
Medium: Oil on Panel
Size: 8” x 10”
Title:  Afternoon Surf    
 
Francis Dixon was born in Queens, Long Island in 1879. He was born into a family of immense influence and wealth. His grandfather, the Hon. James W. Dixon served from 1857 to 1869 as the United States Senator from Connecticut. Francis's father, James Wyllys Dixon, was a noted Civil War officer, respected journalist, and a prominent resident of Flushing, Long Island. He was named for his mother, Frances Stillwell, who was a descendant of one of the early settlers of Gravesend, Brooklyn, Long Island.
 
Francis Dixon was one of ten children, all who were born between 1877 and 1895. While many of his brothers went into more typical professions (brothers Benjamin and Harry became clerks), Francis was already by age twenty considered a fine painter and artist. He studied at the Art Students League, New York and with the noted artists Frank Vincent DuMond, Robert Henri, Charles W. Hawthorne, and Herbert S. Twachtman.
 
Dixon traveled to California in 1915 where he lived in Los Angeles before returning to New York in 1917. During his time in California he is known to have stayed at or near both Carmel and Point Lobos, though only a few works depicting these areas have come to light. Francis Stillwell Dixon painted a number of California scenes during his stay in Carmel and Point Lobos. Most of his early works have not surfaced until recently. One of these paintings is now exhibited at a traveling exhibition for the Salmagundi Club. While in California he met and married Rosalie Hooker in 1915; she divorced him in Paris in 1925. He married again in 1929 to Ms. Emilie A. McMillan who survived him. His former wife (Rosalie) became a princess when she married Prince Leva Melikov de Somhitie in 1926.