New Bond Street, Douglas
Date made: early 20th century
Artist: Quayle, Edward Christian
Description: New Bond Street, Douglas painted in watercolour by Edward Christian Quayle. Signed E C Quayle.
New Bond Street (now demolished), Douglas, Isle of Man. This street right in the heart of old Douglas was demolished in the 1930s to make way for a car park and later the Douglas Bus Station. The building with the lantern was the ‘Step Down Inn’, a very popular Douglas pub around a hundred years ago.
Brown's Guide to the Isle of Man of 1900 says, "On the western side of Parade Street is another opening into that part of the Old Town lying between the North Quay and Victoria Street - New Bond Street, which, with many windings, ends in the Market Place, behind the Old Chapel of St. Matthews."
Edward Christian Quayle was born in 1872, in Birkenhead, England. His artistic career began with training at the Liverpool School of Art before he gained a scholarship in 1891 to study at the South Kensington School of Art and the Slade School in London.
Quayle often visited the Island on painting trips. Throughout his career, Quayle showcased his work regularly at the Isle of Man Fine Arts and Industrial Guild exhibitions - and from 1893, worked from a studio on Prospect Hill, Douglas - where he had relocated his family. Quayle also sold his work commercially, in local public houses and markets to provide an income and support for his family - often referring to his own works as 'potboilers’ and known to produce up to four pieces of work in a day.
At this time, Quayle was part of a thriving artistic community - he and his contemporaries, such as Archibald Knox, Peter Chisholm and Frederick Leach - would often meet together to discuss their craft. Quayle would often go out on painting trips into the Manx landscape with fellow artists John Holland and James Butterworth, travelling for miles around the island by foot or train - and, sometimes, even hiring a pony and trap for their painting expeditions.
Significantly, Quayle founded a School of Drawing and Painting, and further passed on his artistic skills to the younger generation of Manx artists through the Isle of Man Art Club in the mid-1930s.
Quayle's motto for his artwork was 'As you see it, paint it' - which was exactly what he did, providing a fascinating insight into what the island looked like at the turn of the nineteenth century. He died in 1946, in Douglas.
Measurements: h 34cm (sight) w 23.5cm (sight)
Materials: watercolour on paper
Object name: Painting
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 1954-5810
Subject tags : #artgalleryplace