John K. Dillon (1903-1974) American, Harbor Scene Oil on Canvas. Uses stark colors to show boats anchored in a harbor. Signed and dated 1960 bottom left. 

Overall Size: 24 3/4 x 20 3/4 in. 

Sight Size: 19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. 

John Knox Dillon was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1903, and studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, developing an interest in oils and watercolors to capture the landscapes and lifestyles that surrounded him. He moved to Oakland, California in 1920 to explore coastal art, where he married a fellow artist and had one daughter. In 1935 the family traveled to New York City after he participated in the Federal Works Project, where he was further influenced by the Ashcan school and more realist painters, combining this with his earlier Impressionist style and incorporating more people and street scenes. He sought to enlist in the Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but was rejected due to health issues. He spent his remaining years teaching art and painting throughout New York’s five boroughs until he could no longer hold a brush, and died at a relative’s home in Oregon in 1974. His pieces are now seen as an important cross-section of American artistic movements in the mid 20th Century, and have become highly sought by collectors around the world. 

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