01 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #76

Charles Edward Dixon

'An Elizabethan Trader'

Watercolour

19 x 13in.

Private collection

European exploration of other continents began well before the Elizabethan Era, the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) that is often considered to be a golden age in English history. Since Italian explorer Marco Polo (1254–1324) first ventured to Asia in 1266, Europe had enjoyed the exotic merchandise and foods of the faraway lands of China (then called Cathay), India, and the Spice Islands (the Moluccas). For centuries Europeans traveled to these distant markets by land, but in the early 1400s, Middle Eastern natives denied Europeans access to the overland route. Unable to acquire valued goods, Europeans had but one option: to turn to the uncharted oceans. They embarked upon the most significant period of ocean exploration in history.


England was a latecomer to overseas exploration. When Elizabeth (1533–1603) became queen in 1558, the island nation had no available routes for trading in Africa, Asia, or the New World, and it ruled no overseas colonies. Soon, however, independent traders and adventurers of Elizabethan England challenged the great European sea powers and claimed for England a growing, international trade route extending across the known limits of the world. More on An Elizabethan Traders

Charles Edward Dixon (8 December 1872 - 12 September 1934) was a British maritime painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, whose work was highly successful and regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy. Several of his paintings are held by the National Maritime Museum and he was a regular contributing artist to magazines and periodicals. He lived at Itchenor in Sussex and died in 1934. More on Charles Edward Dixon

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