Anger as gallery snubs John Knox. Artist's descendant protests over city's refusal to show work.

Museums and Art Galleries of being more interested in showing exhibits

from abroad than in mounting exhibitions of Scottish work.

Mr Michael Stewart, a descendant of the Paisley-born artist, said

yesterday that he was disappointed that the city's art galleries

department had refused to mount an exhibition this year of Knox's work

to mark the 150th anniversary of his death on January 5, 1845.

''I had hoped to find greater recognition of Knox's work in the

Glasgow Art Galleries -- particularly at Kelvingrove where his brother

lived in the house that became the original art gallery.

''I have been pleading to the gallery management for some time for a

150th anniversary exhibition, but after failing to get replies to a

number of letters and phone calls, I was most disappointed in finally

getting a refusal,'' Mr Stewart said.

He added he was also angry at being charged more than #300 by the

department to have photographs taken of five of Knox's works given to

the gallery by Mr Stewart's great- great-aunt.

A spokesman for Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries said that ''a

definitive exhibition'' of Knox's work had been mounted in 1974, ''so it

is a case of having done something in the past''.

He added that the department now planned four to five years ahead and

it would be hard to squeeze in something like a Knox exhibition.

He said that as Mr Stewart had requested colour prints, rather than

the colour transparencies the gallery dealt with, the department had

employed a photographer to take the pictures requested, but nevertheless

a special price had been negotiated.

It is claimed that since the exhibition of Knox's work 20 years ago

more information and previously unknown works have been discovered.

Ms Elspeth King, the director of the Smith Art Gallery and Museum in

Stirling, said that Knox had become known as one of Scotland's first and

most prominent painters of panoramas -- an early form of cinemascope

which allowed members of the general public to see views of battles,

cities and landscapes.

These panoramas, some of them on thousands of square feet of canvas,

were mounted in wooden rotundas, the most famous being in Queen Street

in Glasgow and on The Mound in Edinburgh, and then toured round the

country. Advertisements for these works were carried in the newspapers

of the day and members of the public were charged one shilling for

admission.

All of his panoramas are believed to have been destroyed although

sketches remain. The paintings which hang in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery

and People's Palace in Glasgow may be scaled-down versions of his

panorama works.

Although best known for his landscapes of Glasgow, the Clyde and other

West of Scotland scenery, Knox was originally a portrait painter. He was

a pupil of Alexander Nasmyth and his own pupils included Horatio

McCulloch and Daniel Macnee.

Ms King said: ''He is a major figure in the history of Scottish art.

You could not look at art history in Scotland without assessing the

contribution of John Knox.''

A former Keeper of Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Mr Roger Billcliffe who

now runs his own gallery in Glasgow, said he believed that an exhibition

of Knox's work would have proved very popular. ''These are the kind of

pictures that the general public are very comfortable with,'' he said.

The director of the Fine Art Society in London, Mr Simon Edsor

assessed Knox as ''a good, hugely competent landscape painter but not an

originator in any particular way -- better than a journeyman but not a

leader.''

He added: ''I would have thought that such an exhibition would be very

successful. Many less distinguished painters have been honoured with

exhibitions. I would have thought that John Knox should have one.

''The right place to have it is Glasgow because he was a Glasgow

painter. Rather than fiddle around with bits and pieces of foreign

things, the major duty of a major city art gallery is to honour its

sons.''