Born in Englefield Green, Surrey, England, the son of Rev. John G. Manly, a Methodist minister, he came to Canada at an early age with his parents. His father served in various places in Canada, Jamaica, England and Ireland and finally settled in Toronto, where he died in 1908. During those years, Charles Manly studied at Heatherley’s School, London, the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, Ireland (1881-1884). On his return to Canada, he settled in Toronto, where he became active in the Toronto Art Students’ League as a founding member (1886). It was in the League Calendar issued from 1893 to 1904 that Manly’s superb pen-and-ink drawings and water colours appeared. He was active as well with the Ontario Society of Artists (O.S.A. 1876) and the Royal Canadian Army (A.R.C.A. 1890) and became President of the O.S.A. in 1903. He was also a member of the short lived Associated Watercolour Painters, Tor. (1912).
From 1894 to 1906, he went sketching, summers, with F.H. Brigden in Eastern Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. Three of his Quebec works are in the Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Queen’s Univ., Kingston, Ont. He won Honourable Mention at the Pan American Exposition in 1901 and the Jessie Dow Prize at the Montreal Spring Exhibition in 1911. In 1904, he joined the staff of the Central Ontario School of Art and Design (later became the Ont. College of Art) and remained on its staff until his death. In the spring of 1901, he first visited the area of Conestogo, Ontario. He returned there each year to sketch and, in 1918, bought property in this district. He wrote articles about the Conestogo country for Canadian Magazine (c. 1908). After his death, his land cottage was left to one of his pupils, Jerine Wells Kinton of Waterloo. In 1946, the property was purchased by Dr. & Mrs. C.S. Wilson. Manly’s sketches were still on the cottage walls when the Wilsons became the new owners. One of Manly’s oil paintings “Evening in the Conestogo” was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada in 1909, after its showing at the Montreal Spring Exhibition and the C.N.E in 1908.
Following his death, many of his drawings were given to the Ontario College of Art. Charles MacDonald Manly was highly regarded as a teacher, illustrator, painter and engraver. His mediums included lithography, pen and ink, ink wash drawings, water colours, oils and pastels. He is represented in the following collections: Ontario Government Legislative Building, Tor.; Ontario Normal School, Tor., and the NGC as already mentioned. Some of his work was in the collection of the Dominion Gallery, Montreal. He never married and at the time of his death was survived by two sisters, Miss S.R. Manly, Miss Laura Manly and a cousin Dr. C.M. Foster of Toronto.
Literature Source:
"A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume 4: Little - Myles", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1978
