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Although many Manx artists add detail to make their landscapes instantly recognisable as a particular location or place on the Island, Knox’s work is far more anonymous. In ‘The Glen’, Knox reduces a potentially complex landscape by editing out all irrelevant or extraneous detail. All that remains is the flat blue sky and a series of blocks of colours with the dark hills in the background and the progressively lighter shades of green to the fore. Even the trees are distilled and reduced to a mere pattern. The spindly tree to the left of the picture is typical of the way Knox illustrated trees in his watercolours. Although not entirely realistic, it is instantly reminiscent of the trees found on the Manx hills that have been shaped and twisted by the unrelenting wind. As a result Knox’s work symbolises, as well as captures, the timelessness of the Manx landscape.
Knox appears to have produced his watercolour paintings as a series of artistic studies, attempting to capture the changing qualities of light and its effect on the landscape. The traditional artistic maxim that one should practice one’s artistic craft every day appears to be one that Knox adhered to as he constantly refined and perfected his watercolour technique.
Manx Museum
Douglas
Title
The Glen and the Blue Hills
Date
c.1900–1933
Medium
watercolour on paper
Measurements
H 41 x W 54.5 cm
Accession number
1954-5671
Acquisition method
gift, 1946
Work type
Watercolour
Manx Museum
Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 3LY Isle of Man
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