James Dickson Innes was born in Greenfield Villas, Murray Street, Llanelly, on the 27th February 1887. He was the youngest of the three sons of John Innes (author of ‘Old Llanelly’ published in 1902) and his wife, Alice Anne Mary (née Rees). The family homes were in New Road, and later Old Road, Llanelly. He attended the Highergrade school at Coleshill, Llanelly, before going on to Christ College, Brecon, as a border. He then studied at the Carmarthen School of Art and, in 1905, won a scholarship at the Slade School of Art, London, where he stayed for two years. Innes never enjoyed good health and, in 1908, the doctors diagnosed consumption. During the next few years he travelled extensively on the Continent with various artist friends in an endeavour to regain his health. He visited the South of France with John Fothergill in 1908, and it was there that he began to paint seriously. Between 1909 and 1913 he visited Paris, spent some time in Collioure and Spain with Derwent Lees, and in Marseilles with Augustus John, with whom he was a close friend and with whom he also spent much time near Arenig, Bala, in North Wales. He visited Morocco with Trelawnay Dayrell-Reed, but the climate was not favourable to his health and he returned to Brighton early in 1914. He died at Swanley, Kent, on 27th August 1914, and was first buried at Chislehurst cemetery, Kent, being re-interred at Whitchurch, near Tavistock, 6th January 1934. The works of Innes are displayed in galleries worldwide and have been owned by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Sir Noel Coward and the Churchhill family. His paintings also appear regularly at auctions and can command up to £50,000. The painting below is called ‘Arenig’ and on display at the Tate Gallery. The Tate’s Head of National and International Initiatives, Judith Nesbitt, recently described it as one of her favourite works included in an exhibition at China’s Shanghai Museum called ‘Landscapes of the Mind: Masterpieces from Tate Britain 1700-1980.
The aim of this website is to garner interest in securing a permanent memorial to Innes in his home town in the form of a statue in the vicinity of the town’s conservation area alongside Llanelli Library, a building with close links to his father John, Llanelly House and the Parish Church. There is only one known photo of James Dickson Innes and the statue would use this image as a base alongside known descriptions of him by the likes of friends such as Augustus John. The BBC made a fascinating film of Innes and Augustus John’s trips to North Wales in the early 1900s https://vimeo.com/user1504823/bbc4-the-mountain-that-had-to-be-painted