[from Proc IoMNH&ASoc vol 4 #3 1939]

THE. ART GALLERY.

By WI.LFRID T. QUAYLE. November 25th, 1938.

Members of the Society were conducted round the picture gallery in the Manx Museum by Mr: Wilfrid T. Quayle. The picture gallery includes a collection of the paintings of J. M. Nicholson, a series of twenty of the Manx landscapes of Archibald Knox (lent to the Museum by the artist's sister, Miss A. Knox), and four of the landscapes of William Hoggatt. Mr Hoggatt had allowed Mr Quayle to exhibit a dozen. or so unframed landscapes, and Mr Quayle, who is an intimate friend of Mr Hoggatt, endeavoured to give the company an idea of this distinguished artist's approach to a subject. He enlarged on Mr. Knox's passion for atmosphere, and said that neither Knox nor Hoggatt could be said to be influenced by any particular school. Nicholson came under two distinct influences-the pre-Raphaelites with their care for detail, and the .Impressionists, with their gift of colour and their passion for light. He also came under the teaching of Ruskin, and the lecturer suggested that it was Ruskin who induced Nicholson to take his period of. study in Italy. Ruskin knew and purchased some of Nicholson's earlierwork. It may be added that at this period Ruskin had an interest in Manx affairs, as the woollen mill at Laxey, under the managership of Egbert Rydings, was founded as part of Ruskin's guild for beauty and soundness in crafts.

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