His Ships Come In

At the height of Montague Dawson’s career, during the 1960s, his paintings reportedly commanded fees second only to those of Pablo Picasso. And almost a quarter of a century after his death in 1973, Dawson remains the best known 20th century sea painter.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll see his paintings alongside Picasso’s any time soon.

“These are never exhibited,” said Monica Hunter, curator at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, which is displaying works by Dawson through March 9.

“Dawson was prolific, but the paintings are held privately,” Hunter said. “They’re not in museum collections. You might see pieces at the major maritime museums. . . . For this exhibit, quite a number are being loaned.”

In fact, 29 have been loaned--nine original oil and watercolor paintings from private collectors, 10 originals and 10 prints from the Vallejo Maritime Gallery, also in Newport Beach.

Complementing the paintings are a number of artifacts from the China tea trade, notably box labels from the Peabody Museum in Salem, Mass., and three display cases of silhouette models, designed to help mariners recognize ships on the horizon during wartime, from the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.

Paintings and antiques from the Vallejo Gallery are available for purchase; between 5% and 10% of sales will benefit the Nautical Museum, according to the museum’s executive director, Shelley Smith. A portrait of the clipper ship Lightning lists at $74,000, the “H.M.S. Ark Royal ‘Landing On’ in Difficult Conditions” $16,500. Limited edition prints start at $1,950.

Dawson, grandson of British landscape artist Henry Dawson, once said that “you have to respect your subject, be almost frightened by it. . . . I’m living in a world of fantasy, and the brush takes charge.

“Of all ships, the clipper thrills me most. There is terrific romance in a sail. No yacht or any other boat has the beauty of a sailing ship bowling along in a spanking breeze--the hum and thrill of the sails.”

More than half of the paintings in the show, such as “Racing Tea Clippers” and a depiction of the Cutty Sark, are of ships in that class. Dawson painted those during the final decades of his life, working primarily from turn-of-the-century childhood memories of clippers still on the waters.

The show also includes paintings of scenes from both world wars, during which Dawson served as a naval officer. “Bismarck Under Fire” shows the German battleship during the final moments of its 1941 battle with the H.M.S. Rodney and H.M.S. King George V.

But it is Dawson’s paintings of small yachts that fascinate Hunter, and she’s in good company. Among Dawson’s commissions was a painting of the royal yacht Bluebottle that would serve as a gift from the Queen Mother to her daughter, then-Princess Elizabeth.

Said Hunter, “A destroyer is kind of remote from most people’s experience. And while Dawson’s clippers are magnificent--he’s established the classic appeal of the huge vessel pitting against the wind and so forth--these are too big in terms of really relating.

“Dawson also painted beautiful, small, elegant yachts, with very personal, intimate views of the enjoyment of wind and water. The silence, the calm and peace of being on a sailboat. . . . That’s a feeling many people have experienced, and these paintings bring that feeling back.”

* What: “Montague Dawson--His Life and Works.”

* When: Through March 9. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

* Where: Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, aboard the stern-wheeler Pride of Newport, 151 E. Coast Highway, Newport Beach.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to the MacArthur Boulevard exit and head south. Turn right on Pacific Coast (1) Highway.

* Wherewithal: Adults, $4. Children 12 and under, $1. (Museum members free.)

* Where to call: (714) 673-7863.