Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nixon, John
NIXON, JOHN (d. 1818), amateur artist, was a merchant in Basinghall Street, London. He had some skill as an artist, and drew landscapes well. He also executed a number of clever caricatures, some of which he etched himself. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1815. Nixon drew a number of views of the seats of the nobility and gentry in England and Ireland, which were engraved for a series published by William Watts [q. v.] the engraver. Nixon was for many years secretary to the Beefsteak Club, and died in 1818.
Another contributor to the same series of views was Robert Nixon (1759–1837), who was curate of Foot's Cray in Kent from 1784 to 1804, and was an honorary exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the Society of Artists from 1790 to 1818. He appears to have been brother of the above, and identical with the Robert Nixon, son of Robert Nixon of London, who graduated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1780, became a bachelor of divinity in 1790, and died at Kenmure Castle, New Galloway, on 5 Nov. 1837, aged 78. He married at Foot's Cray, on 31 Jan. 1799, Ann Russell, by whom he was father of the Rev. Francis Russell Nixon [q. v.], bishop of Tasmania. It was in Nixon's house that Turner, when a boy, in 1793 completed his first painting in oils.
[Gent. Mag. 1818 pt. i. p. 644, 1838 pt. i. p. 104; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Watts's Seats of the Nobility and Gentry; Royal Academy Catalogues.]