We bought this trio of ‘wide-eyed children’ prints this week – a bit of classic 1950s kitsch.

We often buy Tretchikoff prints from this era, but don’t normally go for images quite this cutesy.

They were such good examples of the type, though – and they do certainly have their fans… Red or Dead founder, Wayne Hemingway famously. Check out his book on the subject, Above The Mantelpiece: Mass-Market Masterpieces

The artist of these three is Dallas Simpson. Simpson moved with her husband in the mid 1960s from London to live in a mobile home in West Sussex by the sea. She had no children of her own and her husband used to prime either her canvases or more often she painted on board.

She was a prolific artist of big eyed urchin children, and she used to sell the originals and reproduction rights as long as payment was immediate, to fund her simple life and her beloved gin.

Simpson painted under a number of pseudonyms including Emma Louise and Kelita with subtle changes of style in the painting but with the same subject matter. (biographical information taken from Felix Rosenstiel´s Widow & Son Ltd).

All three are in excellent condition with original frames. So if you’re a fan, drop us an email and we’ll give you first refusal before they go into our pitch or listed on our website.

If you’d like to do a bit more investigating, other artists in the genre include Maio, Lee, Betty Raphael and Margaret Keane.