Manchester School of Painters
Knight painted how he desired and refused to conform to traditional Art School rules and this appealed to his young admirers.
Twice weekly they would all meet up at Knight's studio in York Place behind the Union Chapel in Oxford Road, Manchester to discuss new ways to develop their techniques.
The place was vibrant and full to the brim with an eminent and cosmopolitan crowd of painters known as the Pont-Aven School and the group became influenced by all their different ways of working.
[2] Partington was so outraged he opened his own school in Stockport based on the same lines as the Académie Julian, Paris where masters and students worked together with a life model.
One of his sons Anderson (Dick) Hague exhibited at the RA, RCA, MAFA and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
In 1873 he became a full member of the Manchester Academy in which he played an extremely active business role for forty-three years.
In 1889 he had a one-man exhibition at the Brasenose Club and in 1908 forty-five of his paintings were in a retrospective show at the Manchester City Art Gallery.
[5] In 1899 the art critic Maxwell Enoch wrote the following about Hague's work: "He now paints with a delightful and delicate greyness, and has gradually become stronger in colour and more dexterous in handling.
"[6]John Houghton Hague (1842–1934) was born at Newton Heath on 29 October 1842 and died at his home, Glencairn Queens Road Oldham in April 1934.
On his return he became a master at the Oldham School of Art and was associated with Charles Poller, R O Bottomley and Tom Heywood.
Taken with his collection of transcribed songs and poems they form a chronicle of life in and around Chadderton during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.".
Protesting at the teaching methods practised by the school he left it along with J A Hague, W Meredith, J H E Partington and R G Somerset and enrolled as a student at the Manchester Academy.
He attended the R.A. schools and won the Turner Gold Medal for a painting, Under the Opening Eyelids of the Morn.
Here he would meet up with his friends, William and Edward Stott, Henry Herbert La Thangue and James Charles, who were also studying in Paris.
Jackson was a good friend of the Middleton born architect, Edgar Wood and through his influence he became involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement and mural painting.
In 1892 Jackson designed a murial entitled Seedtime and Harvest for the Old Road Unitarian Chapel, Middleton (demolished 1965).
Some of his other mural commissions were: As an illustrator he produced a number of drawings for the well known dialect writer Ben Brierley's "Ab-o'th-Yate Sketches."
He died in December 1918, and a large Memorial Exhibition was held at the Manchester City Art Gallery.
He attended the Manchester School of Art under the head, Mr. Muckley 1868-1870 who helped him to get a position at Messrs Shaw of St. Chad's at Saddleworth as a designer of cartoons and painter of figures in stained glass.
[20] He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1872, and was a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society producing various articles and drawings.
He established an art school in Stockport which was run on the same lines as the Academie Julian, Paris where masters and students worked together with a live model.
[22] He produced numerous prestigious portraits whilst living in California, including one of Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce who became well known for his The Devil's Dictionary, 1906, a volume of ironic definitions.
