Sulby Glen by Max Crouse

Research by Marjorie Gregson & Elizabeth Bickerstaffe

Acc No                     19
Artist                        Max Crouse previously attributed to M Clause
                                   (Christies Catalogue renamed the artist R  
                                   GOUSE  with a question mark)
Artist dates              1861-1931
Medium                    oil on canvas
Size                          unknown
Date painted            unknown
Donor                       Florence May Mather 1875-1966
                                 26 Knowles Road, St Annes 
Date donated           19 March 1945

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ARTIST

There is no record of an artist called M Clause or one called R Gouse. It is very likely that the artist was Max Crouse who has five paintings, all of local scenes, in the Manx National Heritage.

Friedrich Heinrich Max Krause was born in 1861 in Biesdorf, near Berlin, to Franz Emile Hermann Krause (1836-1900), an accomplished landscape and marine painter and  Johann Henrietta Amelia Stock, daughter of a German painter, Johann Friedrich Augustus Stock. (1)

It is possible that Franz was the son of Wilhelm Krause (1803-1864) who taught at the Academy of Berlin and travelled throughout Europe. He specialised in seascapes, harbour scenes, shipwrecks and landscapes. (see Fine Art Emporium webpage)

The family moved to the United Kingdom and settled in Lancashire. The 1881 census records that 20 year old Max, the eldest of 6 children, was then living at 28 Bignor Street, Cheetham, Prestwich, with his parents and 5 siblings. His occupation was described as an artist marine painter. (2)

In 1885 Max married Mary Jane Mansell (1861-1930) and he is listed officially as Frederick (Friedrich) Heinrich M. Krause in the marriage register. It would appear that by 1891 Max had changed his surname to Crouse as the census of that year shows Max Crouse and his wife as living in Toxteth, Liverpool.  However, it gives his birthplace as the United States and the birth date of his wife differs from that in the previous census although the place of her birth, Shropshire, is correct.  

The 1901 census provides information that Frederick M Crouse was living with his wife,  in Prestwich.  By the 1911 census he was living at Ashleigh, Dane Road, Sale, Cheshire, with his wife, and was listed as a German, naturalised British Subject in 1886.  This address is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists as the address of the artist M Crouse, who exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1907. (2).

Later he and Mary Jane moved to Southport where family members had settled. According to Slater’s Directory of Southport and Birkdale 1896, the Krause brothers, Victor and John (Hans), traded as 'Carvers, Gilders and Picture Frame Makers'.  John continued this business adding 'Art Dealer' to his skills, recorded in Seed’s Southport and District Directory 1927-28 and 1930.

However, his naturalisaton is in some doubt. On 7 October 1916, the Manchester Evening News reported that Max and his wife had appeared before Southport magistrates for being in a prohibited area in Southport as he was not a British Citizen, unlike some other members of his family. He informed them that 'his father and mother, two brothers and a sister had been naturalised but at the time he was over 17 and so he had to remain unnaturalised'.  His wife confirmed she had seen the papers of his father (11). His brother, Emil, changed his name by deed poll to Emil Albert Stock in 1916, taking their mother’s maiden name, probably because of anti-German feeling,  

Earlier confusion over Mary Jane's date of birth was clarified by this article, her age being given as 63 and Max's as 56 and later confirmed by the 1921 census as 1853.

Max Crouse later lived at 197 Portland Street, Southport. His wife died at this address on 12 December 1930, leaving her effects of £366 to 'Henry Max Crouse, artist'. (3)  Max died a year later, also in Southport.

THE ART OF THE KRAUSE FAMILY

During the 1880s Max exhibited and sold paintings in Sheffield. The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent of 4 March 1884 stated, 'The Custom House, Dublin  - the picture is cleverly managed and full of detail. The colour, however, has that individuality belonging to the Krause family'.  In 2003 this picture was sold at auction at Outhwaite and Litherland auctioneers, Southport, for £30,000 in a bidding war. www.blouinart.info.com

This same newspaper reported on the Sheffield Society of Artists in August 1884, when Francis/Franz Krause’s From Morecambe Bay and H Max Krause’s Vannes Bretagne were exhibited.

Francis/Franz Krause painted a large canvas entitled The Memorable Nights of the 9th and 10th (December 1886), also known as The Wreck of the Eliza Fernley, the Southport lifeboat called out to rescue the German vessel, 'The Mexico'. This was first exhibited at The Southport Spring Exhibition in 1887. The painting was bought for the Atkinson Art Gallery in 1888 and was restored in recent years.

Max’s brother, Emil Axel (1867-1922), then aged 20, also painted The Wreck of the Mexico, which again was exhibited at the Atkinson Gallery.  He produced many beautiful landscapes one of which hangs in Southport Art Gallery.

Max Crouse painted many scenes of the Isle of Man which are held by the Manx National Heritage including Rushen and Harbour, Douglas Quay, Peel Castle and Breakwater and In Douglas Harbour.  Other paintings signed by M Crouse, many in watercolour, show Scottish and Lakeland scenes.

PAINTING

Sulby Glen is a picturesque spot much loved by artists, photographers and anglers. It is set in a low valley through which runs the island’s longest river, the Sulby. This drains into Ramsay Harbour after wending its way through the lofty mountains on the island.

In this painting, which is in need of conservation, the light sky illuminates the scene below. The cattle on the river’s edge are framed by the mountains and lush, green terrain. The eye is led by the meandering river to an ancient bridge and, as the river disappears from our view between the mountains either side, a sense of depth and distance is created.

There are many fine details in the picture; the ripples in the river, the markings on the cattle, the rugged escarpment. The picture is one of peace and tranquility.

DONOR

The painting was donated by Florence May Mather in March 1945 when she was widowed and living on Knowles Road, St Annes. She was born in 1875 in Heywood, Lancashire to Ruth and John Rogers, a yarn agent. They were an educated family with Florence and her sister, Sarah, both working as assistant schoolmistresses in 1901 and their brother, William, as a bank clerk.

Florence married widower, James Arthur Mather, born 1866, in 1907 in the Barton on Irwell district. His first wife, Kate, had died in 1905 aged 36 leaving a 10 year old daughter, Constance.

James Mather had grown up in Little Marsden, Nelson with his parents, Mary Ann and William Albert Mather, who worked as a cotton mill manager and worsted manufacturer, employing 15 males and 11 females. (4)

James had an elder brother, William, and a younger brother, Walter, who worked as a bookkeeper. James took over his father’s role after his death. In 1902 Mather and Company, cotton manufacturers, operated at Vale Street Mill in Nelson with James being successful enough to afford homes in both Nelson and Ansdell. (5) 

In February 1907 Mather Brothers was constituted with Directors J A Mather, W Mather and C H Mather, operating at Scholefield Mill in Nelson with 920 looms. By 1923 the mill was manufacturing 'sateens, worsted, Italians, jeans, twill and fancies'. (6)

By 1914 James also owned a large house named 'Sunnyside' in Readley Hallows as well as a home in St Annes. (7)

In 1923 James and Florence were living at Thoresby, 42 St Annes Road East and Florence remained there after his death in 1931. (8)  At the time of his death the business had moved to Hapton Mill, Hapton, near Burnley.  (9)

His daughter, Constance, married Charles Ellison, vicar of St Thomas’ Church, St Annes in 1924.

Florence May Mather died, aged 91, on 12 May 1966 in Blackpool Victoria Hospital.  Her final home was 5 & 7 Osborne Road, St Annes. (10)

REFERENCES

(1)  Ancestry, Public member tree of Pete Smith and Leslie Mackay

(2)  www.findmypast.co.uk

(3)  as above

(4)  as above

(5)  Barrett’s Directory of Burnley and District 1902:  Mather, James A (Mather and Co), Ansdell

(6)  Skinner’s Cotton Trade Directory 1923

(7)  1911 census &
Burnley and District Directory  1914

(8)  Skinner’s Cotton Trade Directory 1923  

(9)  Kelly’s (Slater’s) Directory of Manchester, Salford and Suburbs 1932

(10) Wills and Probate, Ancestry

(11) Manchester Evening News 7 October 1916

​1921 census

Thank you to the assistant curator at Manx National Heritage and to Max Crouse’s great great nephew, Leslie Mackay, for their help and support.