During World War I, Dixon was a singer for the War Department in New York City. He was a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the Revolution, Allied Artists of America (NY), Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the Players and the Dutch Treat Club and the Salmagundi Club, where he performed for years. In the 1920s, Dixon traveled to Bermuda, England and Europe painting local scenes before settling in Manhattan in the thirties.[1][2][3][4]
Dixon's first wife was Rosalie Turner Hooker.[7] They married in Salinas, California on August 10, 1915. Dixon had been the best man at Hooker's first wedding, which was to Dixon's cousin, William C. Welling.[8][9][10] Dixon and Hooker had a son, Francis Stillwell Dixon Jr., but divorced in Paris in 1925 on the grounds of abandonment.[11][12] A year later Rosalie married Prince Leva Melikov de Somhitie whose family once ruled Georgia in Russia.[1][13][14] Dixon married Emilie A. Mcmillan in 1929.[4][15]
On February 5, 1938, Dixon's son married Renee Barat Fannon. They had a child, Kent H. Dixon, and lived as socialites on Sunset Island Three in Miami.[16][17][18][19]
Death and legacy
Dixon died at home in New York City, in 1967, at the age of 87.[20]
In 1996, Kent Dixon loaned 43 of his grandfather's tonal oil paintings to the Springfield Museum of Art for a six-week show.[21] In 2006, he had a record sale of US$22,800 at Shannon's auction for one of his oil on canvas paintings, A Summer Sail.[6][22][23]
Selected collections
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut
Morgan Memorial, Hartford, Connecticut
Selected exhibitions
Springfield Museum of Art, Ohio, 1996
Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina, 1948
Number 10 Gallery, New York, 1941 (solo)
Allied Artists of America, New York, 1940
Barbizon-Plaza Galleries, New York, 1939
Studio Guild Galleries, New York, 1937
Women's University Club, New York, 1937 (solo)
Babcock Galleries, New York, 1926, 1927 (solo)
National Academy of Design, New York, 1925
Salmagundi Club, New York, 1917-1940, 1943, 1945, 1956
Society of Independent Artists, New York, 1917-18, 1920-22, 1924