Dawson Dawson-Watson

The Hôtel Baudy lodger whose stay is dated most precisely: entered in the register on 12 May 1888.

Dates1864 — 1939
NationalityBritish, active in the United States
DisciplinePainter
Place of birthSt John’s Wood, Londres, Angleterre

Biography

The son of the British painter and illustrator John Dawson Watson, he was first taught by his father and by Mark Fisher, then studied in Paris between 1886 and 1889 under Carolus-Duran, Léon Glaize and Luc-Olivier Merson. After a Breton stay at Quimperlé he made his way to Giverny. Later settled in the United States, he ended his career in Texas, where his landscapes and Hill Country cacti brought him late recognition.

Giverny

He came to Giverny in the spring of 1888 at John Leslie Breck’s invitation and remained attached to the village until 1893. There he took up an Impressionist handling on subjects still close to Barbizon.

Relation with the Hôtel Baudy

His stay with the Baudys is the best dated of all: the artist’s catalogue raisonné states that he signed the house register on 12 May 1888 and remained there with his wife until 15 September of the same year. These dates in all likelihood come from the 1887-1899 guest register now held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Principal works

**Haystacks, Giverny** 1888. Work photographed hanging in the dining room of the Hôtel Baudy.

**Giverny** oil on canvas, 1888, signed and dated at lower right. A dirt lane between the white walls of the village, a woman carrying two baskets, tiled roofs and the hillside beyond. It is the view the lodgers had on leaving the hotel.

Key points

1864Born — St John’s Wood, Londres, Angleterre
Giverny1888 — 1893
1939Died

Sources

Continue More than a century of history The archive History of the Hôtel Baudy