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Work of Manx artist on display
A TEMPORARY exhibition displaying The Watercolours of Robert Evans Creer has opened at the Manx Museum in Douglas.
Born in Ramsey in 1838, Robert Evans Creer was an entirely self taught artist.
He moved to Liverpool at an early age, working at the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and later as manager of a bakery. However, he returned regularly to the Isle of Man to visit family and, on these visits, he would sketch numerous rural scenes, these often depicted a way of life and a landscape which was beginning to change on the Island.
Creer travelled the length and breadth of the Island sketching a variety of rural and coastal scenes, often recording farms belonging to his various relatives.
These sketches were transformed on his return home to Liverpool into watercolours that would become a permanent record of his visits and of a Manx landscape of thatched cottages and horse drawn carts that was about to disappear.
Yvonne Cresswell, curator for social history at Manx National Heritage, said: 'The Isle of Man in the 1870s and 1880s was moving away from its rural past and embracing new industries and new technologies.
'The mines at Laxey and Foxdale were in full production and the rapidly developing tourism industry was bringing new prosperity to thousands as the resort of Douglas grew.
'It is interesting that Creer did not depict any of these modern scenes preferring to focus on fondly remembered scenes from his childhood, his watercolours provide a unique record of the Manx landscape showing farm buildings long since demolished or altered and the tranquillity of quiet country lanes.'
Works on display at the Manx Museum are drawn from a collection of more than 100 of Creer's paintings recently bequeathed to MNH by one of the artist's descendants for preservation in the National Art Collection.
The exhibition runs until Saturday, January 10, next year. Admission to both the Manx Museum and the exhibition is free of charge.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 1 C to 7 C
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