Dillon, Charles Grills

Introduction:

The son of a Plymouth jeweller and engraver, Devonshire-born CHARLES GRILLS DILLON (1780-1853) was himself an engraver, portrait miniaturist, portrait painter and profilist of merit. In part pursuing an itinerant career he is sometimes referred to as 'Dillon of Dock' the abbreviated placename of Plymouth Dock, renamed Devonport in 1824.

Though Dillon's three, circa 1811-1816, Plymouth-based printed trade-labels offer 'Profiles and Likenesses in Various Styles', it's uncertain any were produced after that time and no terms or options have ever surfacd. Certainly when engaged on a tour of Cornish towns in 1818, his only known newspaper advertisement, placed in the WESTERN TIMES  2nd September, makes mention only of portrait miniatures.

However, though few are recorded, he crafted both cut and painted profiles on paper and card. Two are illustrated in Mckechnie. Both favour brown-grey body colour, both are housed in papier-mâché frames. The first is a bust-sized, cut-work profile of a girl. Hair and attire are well highlighted with gold paint and gum arabic liberally applied. The bust-line terminates with a shallow slope. The second profile, perhaps unsurprisingly for the location, is of a named Royal Navy officer with uniform well observed, painted in colours and without  bust-line termination.

Circa 1808-1810, for reasons unknown Dillon and family decamped to the Channel islands where 2 sons were born in July 1809 and September 1810, It is also where his first known work is recorded. Printed and published by 'C G Dillon' in Jersey in October 1808 and now housed in the British Museum collection is a mezzotint of his full-length portrait of the Island's Lieutenant Governor. Handled maturely it is executed in the manner of miniaturist and watercolourist Henry Edridge (1768-1821), as is a 3/4 length Dillon miniature painted in 1833 and illustrated by Mckechnie. Given this its arguable that, around the time of his marriage in London in 1804, Dillon was perhaps tutored by Edridge.

Published in 1828, also in the British Museum, is a stipple engraving by Dillon of his portrait of a Devonport clergyman. By 1825, evidenced by a Lancashire trade directory, he was working in Liverpool and advertising himself a landscape painter and portrait miniaturist, and 12  watercolour views of York, circa 1830 are housed in the town's Merchant Venturers Hall. In 1833 exhibiting works at the Plymouth Athanaeum's 13th exhibition, a contemporary critic stated 'Mr Dillon's Miniatures are very correct and very carefully finished', And in the 1851 Census he is still recorded an 'Artist and Portrait painter'.

Regarding his family circumstances he was the 2nd of 6 children, 2 daughters and 4 sons (one dying in infancy) born between 1776-1796 to Sarah nee Grills (1755-1826) and goldsmith, jeweller and engraver, Robert Dillon (born 1751). Robert Dillon's brother Charles (1744-1802), became a London cutler as did the artist's brother Robert  Jnr (born 1786). The artist's youngest sibling John Creed (1797-1857) became a dockyard carpenter in London and Charles Grills himself was surely taught engraving by his father.

Aged 24, and possibly employed in London, Charles Grills Dillon married Oxfordshire-born Maria Ward (1784-1872) at St. Marys', Finchley, Middlesex,15th December 1804. Between 1807-1823 she bore 3 daughters and 6 sons, all survived to adulthood. None of their daughters wed, three of their sons became Masters and Commanders in the Royal Navy. Aged 87 and surviving her daughters and husband by some margin Maria Dillon was buried at Plymouth St. Andrews 3rd February 1872.

Aged 72, Charles Grills Dillon was interred at Plymouth St. Andrews 25th February 1853.

REVISED: 24 April 2026 (Brian Wellings)