ROBERT MANUGE'S BLUE EYES SPARKLE. He is excited about expanding his blueberry fields. More to the point, he's excited about the benefits the blueberry industry could bring to Nova Scotia. Manuge is passionate about developing industry in his province. But then he's passionate about a number of things, art being high on his list.

Manuge was born in the village of South Brook, N.S., in 1921, the 14th of 15 children. His father was a lumber inspector, his mother a teacher. Manuge proved himself an excellent and ambitious student at the one-room school he attended, but there was no money for further education. He left school after grade 10 to help support his family, working on farms and in lumber mills in Nova Scotia. "That was the way things had to be," he says. "It was the Depression."

In 1939, a minor event was to change the course of Manuge's life. Noticing a car stuck in a snow bank, he enlisted his brother's help and went to assist the motorist. The three managed to free the car, but the roads had become impassable. Manuge arranged for the man to spend the night at his boarding house in East Southampton. After dinner, the motorist saw Manuge working on a correspondence course (by day, Manuge had a job cutting timber) and asked him about his goals. "I want to further my education, and I want to get a job in town," was the young man's simple reply.

Two weeks later, Manuge received a call from the motorist, whose brother owned a garage in Amherst, N.S. A job was waiting there for Manuge if he wanted it.

Within a month Manuge had moved to Amherst, where he joined Trinity St. Stephen's United Church and met a well-to-do woman named Lena Heartz-Johnson. "She took me under her wing," says Manuge, explaining that she helped him to improve his speech and taught him how to act at social functions and to appreciate art and music. More importantly, she made him believe in himself.

Within six months of his arrival in Amherst, Manuge found a new job as a clerk with Canadian National Express. It marked the beginning of a career in business and management that was to see him move swiftly through the ranks at a number of companies in several locations, including Moncton, Halifax and Montreal.

It was after Manuge moved to Montreal in 1948 to work for Air Canada that his love of art was ignited. "I had an apartment near the Museum of Fine Arts," he explains. "I would go there often and became fascinated with the paintings of the Group of Seven, largely because most of them reminded me of home." In 1952, Manuge spent $75 to buy his first piece of art, a painting of a B.C. forest by Arthur Lismer. Shortly after this, he met A.Y. Jackson while on a business trip to Ottawa and bought one of his paintings (for $120), which he later donated to the Province of Nova Scotia. It is now part of the collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. "I didn't buy the paintings as an investment," explains Manuge. "I simply liked them."

In 1961, Manuge took over the helm of Industrial Estates Limited, a Crown corporation aimed at promoting industrial development in Nova Scotia, and spent the next dozen years writing letters promoting the province and flying hundreds of thousands of kilometres around the world. He wined and dined with business barons and visited hundreds of factories all over the world. When the work was done, he sought out museums and galleries.

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MANUGE MET HIS WIFE, ELIZABETH, a clinical psychologist, in Montreal in 1954. Art drew them together, and by 1970 the couple had acquired nearly 300 pieces, estimated to be the largest private collection in Atlantic Canada. In 1973, Manuge left Industrial Estates. Two years later, he and Elizabeth opened Manuge Galleries Ltd. on Halifax's Hollis Street.

In the gallery, Manuge was able to combine his love of art, business acumen and promotional ability. "Robert is a man with innate business sense, and he turned his love of collecting works of art into a full-time business," says Celia Roberts, daughter of the Canadian artist Tom Roberts, whose works Manuge exhibited at his gallery during the 1970s and early 1980s. "If it weren't for people like Robert, who have the vision to bring Canadian art to the people, we could start to lose our identity. Artists need people like the Manuges to foster Canadian art."

Basil Deakin, a former arts and entertainment editor for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald and the Mail-Star, followed Manuge's career for nearly 25 years. "He encouraged artists and was one of the most important figures in the visual arts in Nova Scotia," Deakin comments. "Like everything he's touched, he's gone at it with all guns blazing."

Despite the fact that Manuge is an astute business person, profit isn't what motivates his work in the art field. As Deakin explains, Manuge has made remarkable donations of art to public institutions. Not only did he contribute personally and directly, says Deakin, but he also helped wealthy businesspeople build impressive private collections, which one day may also be donated to public institutions.

Manuge had Van Horne's paintings restored and set out to find a Canadian buyer

Manuge's most public dealings with art are associated with the private collection of Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A great patron of the arts, Van Horne developed an extensive collection of European masters and Japanese porcelain and was an accomplished painter in his own right.

In 1975, Manuge purchased 21 works painted by Van Horne through an art dealer in the United States. Believing that the paintings were historically significant and should reside in Canada, Manuge had them restored and set out to find a Canadian buyer. Unsuccessful in this endeavour, he gave up after four years and made arrangements for the paintings to be put up for sale in England at an auction of railway collectables. Just before the auction was to take place, however, a representative from Imperial Oil contacted him, offering to purchase the collection. The paintings would stay in Canada and be donated to the Province of New Brunswick.

Twenty-three years later, Manuge has embarked on another mission concerning the Van Horne collection. "I would like once and for all to establish that these paintings have a cultural and historical significance to Canada," he says. "It's time to mount a Van Horne exhibit – a retrospective." Manuge is hoping that the collection can be gathered together and exhibited for a year, and perhaps even be taken across the country.

Meanwhile, Manuge continues to expand his blueberry fields. At 80, he remains as indefatigable as ever. – Sandra Phinney

Photography: Sandra Phinney; George Georgakakos