[From The Tourist Vol 3 p59/60 - 1899]

FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS. No. 3-Mr. George B. Cowen.

Mr G.B.Cowen

The photographer whose out of the common deeds we would briefly name this month is Mr. George B. Cowen, of Waterloo Road, Ramsey, I.o.M. For so young a man his success has been surprising save when it is remembered that he was taught his profession by that medallist and master hand, Mr. Abel Lewis, now of Clifton, Bristol. It is something to have a good tutor, you know ; indeed Mr. Cowen had more, for, during a temporary residence at Clifton, he was fortunate them to meet the Rev. T. E. Brown, "the most famous Manxman living or dead" (as Hall Caine called him) and, certainly the first scholar and most cultured man the island has produced. Strangely enough Mr. Brown later on settled in Ramsey, came often to the Studio, encouraged Mr. Cowen in his work, and suggested many of the studies of Manx life and character now so specialised by the subject of this sketch. who also since then, has illustrated some of Mr. Brown's works, a labour which he always looks back upon with immense pride.

Mr. Cowen is now a Prize Medallist himself, and has taken honours at London, Bristol, Edinhurgh. Dublin, New York, and other places. Perhaps he is most widely known in connection with the pictorial side of Hall Caine and his works, although now he is also becoming associated with those of "the coming man," the Rev. John Quine, the author of the "Captain of the Parish," etc., and a contributor to our own pages from time to time.

The photos. in connection with Hall Caine have brought Mr. Cowen much renown ; thousands of them (such as Pete's cottage, Kitty Cregeen, and Greeba Castle) have been sold in America, and it is quite common for parties of travelling Yankees to make their way to the studio, in Ramsey, anxious to acquire still further pictorial reference to the writer they evidently admire so much. Other notable views are of the type of "The Big Wave," "The Manx Lifeboat," and the wonderful sea-scapes from the neighbourhood of Maughold Head. But, naturally, the list is too long for us to enumerate here. Mr. Cowen has undertaken all manner of official contracts-for the railways, the electric tramways, the Government Board of Advertising, the Steam Packet Company, while he has also made a particular study of those anti­matters-runic crosses, relics, the bones of the Elk, etc.-so dear to Mr. P. C. M. Kermode, his society, and the public; again, he had the biggest hand in compiling the presentation albums to the various Lieut.-Governors, of whom one, Sir West Ridgeway, said such work he had never seen surpassed.

Mr. Cowen has also been down the Mediterranean in search of pictures; is himself a good artist both in oils and water colours-a. happy extraneous gift for a photographer to have-and anatomist enough for animal studies of the higher kinds. Figures, too­particularly children's portraits-he takes delight in and, as many examples from his camera have appeared in our pages from the very first number, nothing further need be expressed on this head..

At the same time, we once more make our point. We are the tourists' friends, not the photographer's. Tourists want their pictures. Let them, therefore, go to those who have made life studies of particular neighbourhoods. It is such as these of whom we make mention in our pages, and their Studios can be visited for information, for pleasure, or for business, while those from, afar can deal with them through the post.