Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
THE GLASGOW BOYS AND THE COLOURISTS
In the 1870s a group of Glasgow-based painters formed a loose association that was to imbue
Scottish art with a contemporary European flavour far ahead of the rest of Britain. Dominated by
five men - Guthrie, Lavery, Henry, Hornel and Crawhall -
The Glasgow Boys
came from very
different backgrounds, but all violently rejected the eighteenth-century sentimental renditions
of Scottish history peopled by “poor but happy” families. They began to experiment with colour,
liberally splashing paint across the canvas. The content and concerns of the paintings, often
showing peasant life and work, were as offensive to the art establishment as their style.
Sir James Guthrie
, taking inspiration from the
plein-air
painting of the Impressionists, spent his
summers in the countryside. Typical of his finest work during the 1880s,
A Highland Funeral
(in the
Kelvingrove collection, see p.194) was hugely influential for the rest of the group, who found
inspiration in its restrained emotional content, colour and unaffected realism. It persuaded
Sir
John Lavery
, then studying in France, to return to Glasgow. Lavery was eventually to become an
internationally popular society portraitist, his subtle use of paint revealing his debt to Whistler, but
his earlier work, depicting the middle class at play, is filled with fresh colour and figures in motion.
Rather than a realistic aesthetic, an interest in colour and decoration united the work of
friends
George Henry
and
E.A. Hornel
. The predominance of colour, pattern and design in
Henry's
Galloway Landscape
, for example, is remarkable, while their joint work
The Druids
, in
thickly applied impasto, is full of Celtic symbolism; both are part of the Kelvingrove collection. In
1893 the two artists set off for Japan, funded by Alexander Reid and later William Burrell, where
their vibrant tone and texture took Scottish painting to the forefront of European trends.
Newcastle-born
Joseph Crawhall
was a reserved and quiet individual who combined
superb draughtsmanship and simplicity of line with a photographic memory to create
watercolours of an outstanding naturalism and freshness.
THE SCOTTISH COLOURISTS
The Glasgow Boys school had reached its height by 1900 and did not outlast World War I, but
they inspired the next generation of Edinburgh painters, who became known as the
“
Colourists
”. Samuel John Peploe, John Duncan Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter and Francis
Cadell shared an understanding that the manipulation of colour was the heart and soul of a
good painting. All took inspiration from the avant-garde of late nineteenth-century Paris as
well as the landscapes of southern France.
J.D. Fergusson
, in particular, immersed himself in
the progressive Parisian scene, rubbing shoulders with writers and artists including Picasso.
The influence of
post-Impressionists
such as Matisse and Cézanne is obvious in the work of
all four, with their seascapes, society portraits and still lifes bursting with fluidity,
unconventionality and, above all, manipulation of colour and shape.
muted study of homas Carlyle, Titian's
Adulteress brought before Christ
and some
notable paintings by Pissarro, Monet and Renoir.
You can also acquaint yourself with significant
Scottish art
including works by the
Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists (see box, above), as well as more
contemporary work such as Joan Eardley's gritty
Two Children
and Stephen Conroy's
arresting
Self Portrait
. here's a special section of paintings, furniture and murals
devoted to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the “
Glasgow Style
” that he and his
contemporaries inspired. Various busts and pieces of
sculpture
are sprinkled around the
galleries, most of them classical in form, while Sophie Cave's 95 hanging face masks fill
the East Court with all sorts of facial expressions and emotions.
Glasgow University
University Avenue • University Visitor Centre & Shop: Oct-May Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm, June-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm, Sun
11am-3pm; guided tours from the Visitor Centre April- Sept Wed-Sat 11am, bookings advised • £10 •
T
0141 330 5511,
W
gla.ac.uk •
Kelvin Hall /Hillhead underground
Dominating the West End skyline, the gloomy turreted tower of
Glasgow University
,
designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the mid-nineteenth century, overlooks the
