Original Dallas Simpson Painting on eBay

T

here is a chance to own an original Dallas Simpson painting on UK eBay at the moment. The seller has also included an insightful bio on the artist.

"Dallas Simpson was one of the most famous English artists of the 1960s and she achieved her phenomenal success mainly through sales of prints of her work which, at the height of her fame, literally sold in their millions, rivalling sales of other popular print artists of the period such as Tretchikoff.   Everyone in the land is familiar with the wonderful images she created, usually featuring slightly sad big eyed urchin children, a style which many tried but failed to copy successfully. Her style is now known as Sixties Kitsch and with Retro now increasingly popular, Dallas Simpson's original paintings, from which the prints were made, are now both rare and highly collectable. Dallas Simpson was, indeed, the Queen of Kitsch.

The artist was originally from London.  But in the Sixties, at the height of her fame, she and her husband, they had no children of their own, decided to move to a caravan by the sea in West Sussex on the South Coast of England.  There, the couple often worked together as a team, her husband preparing her canvases for her.  Otherwise, she painted on board.  The public clamoured for prints of her work (and still do).  Her principal publishers were Felix Rosenstiel's Widow & Son, Frost & Reed (now part of Rosenstiel's) and A.W. Vivian Mansell (no longer in business).  A measure of her success is that the Rosenstiel's collection of her work is still in print.  Go toRosenstiel's Gallery of Dallas Simpson prints. She also painted under a number of pseudonyms including Emma Louise and Kelita with a subtle change of style in the painting but with the same subject matter.

Some of her biographers have unkindly suggested that sometimes she would be prepared to sell her original paintings, including the valuable reproduction rights, for immediate cash, a practice that was seriously frowned upon by her publishers, especially as the money was allegedly spent immediately on her beloved gin.

Overall, the work of Dallas Simpson was and still is much loved by the whole country.  Her images are instantly recognisable and everyone remembers them with great affection.  They were, indeed, an integral part of the Sixties.   "