NEARLY £500,000 will go to charity when works by a prominent Hampshire artist go up for auction.

The stunning paintings by artist Montague Dawson were owned by his daughter Nyria, who died last year.

But in her will she instructed that the works should be auctioned and the profits should benefit the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the Tall ships Trust.

The three charities can expect a cut of the cash that the 25 paintings will raise.

Jane Turner, an art specialist and spokeswoman for Christie's Auction House in London, said Dawson was fascinated by the sea, ships and art.

"The fact that these works remained within the family collection reflects that they were Dawson's personal favourites. Appearing at auction for the first time, this is an exciting opportunity for collectors."

Montague Dawson was the son of a Thames yachtsman and his grandfather was a

successful landscape painter.

By the time he was eight, Dawson was already a serious artist at the family home on the edge of Southampton Water.

He served as a naval officer in the First World War and by 1945 was the best-known marine artist in Britain.

It was also rumoured that he was the second highest paid artist in the world next to Picasso.

Included in the auction is a seascape entitled The Nature Hut, Gorgona, which is expected to raise up to £60,000.

There is a similar estimate on his Spindrift Preparing to Leave Foochow, while more than 20 other paintings have been given estimates of between £1,000 and £50,000.

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said: "We are obviously delighted that we will receive a portion of the money and are thankful to the estate that we have been named a beneficiary."

Montague Dawson married his wife Doris and their daughter, Nyria, was born in 1928.

The family settled in Milford on Sea in 1934 and Dawson died in 1973 at the age of 78.

The high cost of death duties meant Miss Dawson had to sell the family home and some of the artwork and three of those paintings are also going on auction.

They are Thundering Along - Landfall off the Lizard, which could raise up to £60,000, High Wind, and Cutty Sark Riding the Ocean's Swell, both estimated about £50,000.

The auction is being held at Christie's in South Kensington, London, on November 17.

MONTAGUE DAWSON FACTFILE:

MONTAGUE Dawson was born in Chiswick, London.

In his early life he moved to Smuggler's House on Southampton Water with his family and was greatly influenced by his nautical surroundings.

Dawson never went to art school but inherited a flair for painting and in about 1910 joined a commercial art studio in London, where he worked on posters and illustrations.

At the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Royal Navy and continued his artistic work by supplying publications with illustrations.

After the war he set up as a painter and illustrator, concentrating on historical subjects and portraits of deep- water sailing ships.

It was in the 1920s that he was contracted to a firm called Frost and Reed and his art given maximum publicity.

From the early 1930s he lived at Milford on Sea, exhibiting at the Royal Academy until 1936.

He exhibited regularly at the Society of Marine Artists' exhibitions between 1946 and 1964. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.