Biographies

John Sandford Dyason All we know about him is containted in the following passage from Huntly Carter’s article on Art in The New Age () Searching at the South Kensington Art Museum for a work on sunset colouring, I came across a portfolio of watercolour drawings of the “ Cromatics of the Sky,” by John Sandford Dyason. To me these meteorological notes are chiefly of interest in recalling the hard story of an old acquaintance. Dyason was a curious blend of artist, author, and scientist. He was a man of wide and exceptional knowledge and ability, a fellow of many London learned societies. When I first met him he was destitute. His business was painting and etching, his recreation attending the meetings of scientific societies. Unfortunately, he felt it his duty to appear well dressed at these meetings, and what with having no money, and with having to collect spotted and frayed garments where he could, he usually turned up looking something between a dancing bear and a Kickapoo Indian. But, though Dyason fulfilled his duty to the extent of appearing fearfully and wonderfully arrayed, I do not believe it was for the purpose of hearing deadly dull discourses on dry-as-dust subjects SO much as for that of obtaining free refreshments. More than once during a discourse at the Meteorological Society’s meetings I have seen him steal away apparently to discuss a knotty point with a Fellow, but really to obtain food and drink sufficient to sustain him for many long hours to come. For a time I lost sight of Dyason, and when I met him again he was in Marylebone Workhouse, where he had once served the public as guardian of the poor. Here in the infirmary he lay dying, and here I was able to add comfort to his passmg. NA 6.14:331 We have found two of Dyason’s meteorological paintings: