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Manson, J. B.
Manson, J. B. ( James Bolivar Manson) (1879–1945). British painter and art administrator, born in London. His father—a writer and editor—did not want him to follow the risky career of an artist and compelled him to work in a bank, which he hated. He took lessons part-time at Heatherley's School and eventually saved enough money to leave the bank and study at the Académie Julian in Paris, 1903–4. After his return to London he achieved modest success with portraits, landscapes, and still-lifes painted in an unexceptional Impressionist manner. He met Lucien Pissarro in 1910 and through him was drawn into Sickert's circle, becoming secretary of the Camden Town Group and of its successor the London Group. In 1912 he became a curator at the Tate Gallery, and although he continued to paint and exhibit, he was mainly occupied with administration, especially after he was appointed director of the gallery in 1930. His directorship was notable mainly in a negative sense, for he was hostile to avant-garde art and tried to prevent works by artists of the calibre of Matisse and Rouault entering the collection. The modern painters in whom he was interested included Degas and Sargent, on both of whom he wrote books (he published several other, generally fairly slight books, including Hours in the Tate Gallery, 1926). A genial character, Manson was fond of the bottle and in 1938 he was compelled to resign from the Tate on the grounds of ‘ill-health’ after uttering ‘remarkably life-like and penetrating cock-a-doodle-dos’ at an official banquet in Paris (the episode is recounted with gusto by Kenneth Clark in his autobiography, Another Part of the Wood; he says it was ‘the only public banquet that I have ever really enjoyed').
A memorial exhibition of Manson's work was held at the dealer Wildenstein's in 1946, but after that his paintings were neglected for many years. However, two exhibitions were devoted to him in London in the 1970s: at the Maltzahn Gallery in 1973, and at the New Grafton Gallery in 1979 (the centenary of his birth). See also EDE. |
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Cite this article
IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 14 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (February 14, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O5-MansonJB.html IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. 1999. Retrieved February 14, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O5-MansonJB.html |
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Manson, J. B.
Manson, J. B. See Camden Town Group.
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Cite this article
IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 14 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 14, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-MansonJB.html IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Retrieved February 14, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O2-MansonJB.html |
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Manson, J. B.
Manson, J. B. See Camden Town Group.
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Cite this article
IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 14 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 14, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O3-MansonJB.html IAN CHILVERS. "Manson, J. B." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2003. Retrieved February 14, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O3-MansonJB.html |
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