Robert Dawson   1926 - 1997 

Robert Dawson was born in 1926. Leaving school at 17, Dawson was offered a scholarship to Stoke-on-Trent College of Art, but was persuaded by his mother to join a solicitor’s office. Aged 22, Dawson joined a touring dance band, performing in US Airforce bases in Germany. After studying English and Art at Clarendon College, Nottingham, in 1965, he trained as a primary school teacher.

Dawson, a great collector and lover of art, was also a member of the Staffordshire Society of Artists and had several solo exhibitions. In 1973 and 1974 he won the Holbrook Prize at Nottingham Castle Museum. When Dawson died in 1997, he left a substantial body of work. Among his papers were the drafts for Painters and their Houses.

"Robert Dawson was always one of the quiet men of art, a man of great modesty. Unlike so many of the younger artists today, he did not aspire to fame or artistic acclaim but quietly contented himself with wring out his own problems in his own honest way.

Because he painted what he loved he was able to communicate that love to others. For this reason, I believe, his work will always be appreciated long after so much of the facile creations produced today have been forgotten." Sir Kyffin Williams, Anglesey, 2000

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