'He took me down to the basement and I became intrigued'

> Llanelli-born painter James Dickson Innes

- Jenny White

AMES Dickson Innes (1887-1914) was an astonishing Welsh painter whose style fused the energetic colour of the fauves with the freedom of expressionism, the folkloric qualities of primitivism, and a hint of naivety which belied the sophistication of his work.

Born in Llanelli in 1887. Innes was of Scottish and Catalan descent and studied at Christ College, Brecon before attending Carmarthen School of Art.

After this, he went to the Slade in London, where he was tutored by the landand seascape painter P Wilson Steer, and Henry Tonks, who was best known for depicting the human form.

Innes' career had a very promising beginning: he was a member of the Camden Town Group, which included Walter Sickert and Augustus John, and was supported by prominent Welsh patron of the arts Winifred Coombe Tennant.

Yet by 1914 he was dead, having succumbed to tuberculosis.

Today, his work can be seen in national collections including the National Museum Cardiff and Tate Gallery, London.

An overview of his life and art, James Dickson Innes (1887-1914) by John Hoole and Margaret Simons, was published in 2013 to coincide with an exhibition marking the centenary of his death.

Innes was a close friend of Welsh painter Augustus John, with whom he spent a lot of time walking and painting. John remembered Innes' dress sense and personality as being as vivid as his art: He described him as having glittering dark eyes, a wide, sardonic mouth, and carrying an ebony cane with a gold top.

Whether painting Wales or in France, where the dreamlike harbour town of Collioure was a favourite subject, his work had extraordinary aliveness. His handling of light and colour were not something that just anyone could replicate.

Yet his own star flickered out in a nursing home in Swanley, Kent, when he was just 27.