The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook School), the Glasgow Girls and the Glasgow Boys. Part of the international

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

movement, they were responsible for creating the distinctive Glasgow Style (see

Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It is the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native ...

). Glasgow experienced an

economic boom An economic expansion is an increase in the level of economic activity, and of the goods and services available. It is a period of economic growth as measured by a rise in real GDP. The explanation of fluctuations in aggregate economic activity ...

at the end of the 19th century, resulting in an increase in distinctive contributions to the Art Nouveau movement, particularly in the fields of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordin ...

and

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

The Four (Spook School)

Among the most prominent definers of the Glasgow School collective were The Four. They were the

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and

glass artist Studio glass is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. The glass objects created are intended to make a sculptural or decorative statement. Though usage varies, the term is properly res ...

Margaret MacDonald, acclaimed

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...

(MacDonald's husband), MacDonald's sister

Frances Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the F ...

and

Herbert MacNair James Herbert MacNair (23 December 1868 – 22 April 1955), was a Scottish artist, designer and teacher whose work contributed to the development of the Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) during the 1890s. Early life Born in Glasgow in ...

. Together, The Four defined the Glasgow Style's fusion of influences including the

Celtic Revival The Celtic Revival (also referred to as the Celtic Twilight) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gae ...

, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and

Japonisme ''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japon ...

, which found favour throughout the

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tra ...

world of continental Europe. The Four, otherwise known as the Spook School, ultimately made a significant impact on the definition of

. The name, Spook School, or Spooky or Ghoul School, was originally a "derisive epithet" given to their work which "distorted and conventionalized human... form."

The Glasgow Girls

The Glasgow Girls is the name now used for a group of female designers and

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

including

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

and

Frances MacDonald Frances Macdonald MacNair (24 August 1873 – 12 December 1921) was a Scottish artist whose design work was a prominent feature of the Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) during the 1890s. Biography The sister of artist-designer ...

, both of whom were members of The Four, Jessie M. King,

Annie French Annie French (6 February 1872 – 27 January 1965) was a Scottish painter, engraver, illustrator, and designer associated with the Glasgow School. Biography French was a student of Jean Delville and Fra Newbery at the Glasgow School of Art from ...

Helen Paxton Brown Helen Paxton Brown (1876 - 1956) also known as "Nell", was an artist associated with the Glasgow Girls. Born in Hillhead, Glasgow to a Scottish father and English mother and she spent most of her life in Glasgow. Best known for her paintin ...

Jessie Wylie Newbery Jessie Newbery (28 May 1864 – 27 April 1948) was a Scottish artist and embroiderer. She was one of the artists known as the Glasgow Girls. Newbery also created the Department of Embroidery at the Glasgow School of Art where she was able to ...

Ann Macbeth Ann Macbeth (25 September 1875 – 23 March 1948 ) was a British embroiderer, designer, teacher and author, a member of the Glasgow Movement and an associate of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. She was also an active suffragette and designed ba ...

Bessie MacNicol Elizabeth "Bessie" MacNicol (1869–1904) was a Scottish painter and member of the Glasgow Girls group of artists affiliated with the Glasgow School of artists. Early life and education MacNicol was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 5 July 1869, ...

Norah Neilson Gray Norah Neilson Gray (16 June 1882 – 27 May 1931) was a Scottish artist of the Glasgow School. She first exhibited at the Royal Academy while still a student and then showed works regularly at the Paris Salon and with the Royal Academy of Scot ...

,Glasgow Girls On Display
Mary Selwood, accessed July 2010 Stansmore Dean, Dorothy Carleton Smyth, Eleanor Allen Moore, De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar, the silversmith Agnes Banks Harvey and Christian Jane Fergusson. May Wilson and Eliza Bell, among others, continued the tradition of ceramic artistry into the 1940s and 1950s by hand painting various items with floral patterns. Women were able to flourish in Glasgow during a "period of enlightenment" that took place between 1885 and 1920, where women were actively pursuing art careers and the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...

had a significant period of "international visibility". This is sometimes attributed to the "influential" and "progressive" head of the art school,

Fra Newbery Francis Henry Newbery or Fra Newbery (15 May 1855 – 18 December 1946) was a painter and art educationist, best known as director of the Glasgow School of Art between 1885 and 1917. Under his leadership the School developed an international ...

, who established an environment in which women could flourish, both as students and as teachers. Women benefited from the new Glasgow Society of Lady Artists (founded 1882) which offered a place for women artists to meet and also had exhibition space. In addition, many art school students and staff were involved in

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. "Students took turns between classes stitching up banners" for the movement. The name "Glasgow Girls" emerged much later. In the 1960s there was an attempt to give due attention to the work of the city’s women artists to balance the plentiful discussion of the Glasgow Boys. It is thought that the then head of the

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...

William Buchanan was the first to use the name in the catalogue for a 1968 Glasgow Boys exhibition. This "invention"Andrew Gibbbon Williams, 'Engendering respect', The Times (features), 18 Sep 1990 has been called an "ironic reference" to the equivalent men’s grouping. The term Glasgow Girls was emphasised by a major exhibition ''Glasgow Girls: Women in Art and Design 1880-1920'' organised by Jude Burkhauser in 1990. File:Frances MacDonald - A Paradox 1905.jpg, ''A Paradox'' by

, 1905 File:Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh - Opera of the Winds.jpg, ''Opera of the Winds'' by

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (5 November 1864 – 7 January 1933) was an English-born artist who worked in Scotland, and whose design work became one of the defining features of the Glasgow Style during the 1890s - 1900s. Biography Born Marg ...

, 1903 File:Bessie MacNicol - The Goose Girl 1898.jpg, ''The Goose Girl'' by

, 1898

The Glasgow Boys

Through the 1880s and 1890s, around the same time that the Spook School was gaining prominence, a collective which came to be known as the

Glasgow Boys The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook School ...

was interpreting and expanding the

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

post-impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction aga ...

painting. Their subject matter featured

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

, prosaic scenes from in and around Glasgow. Their colorful depictions attempted to capture the many facets of the character of

. The Glasgow Boys consisted of several men, most of whom were trained in, or had strong ties to the city of Glasgow. These men were brought together by a passion for realism and naturalism and this showed through in the pieces they produced. Along with this passion for naturalism, they shared a marked distaste for the Edinburgh oriented Scottish art establishment, which they viewed as oppressive. Driven and motivated by these ideals they embraced change, created masterpieces, and became Scottish icons in the process. There were three distinct waves of Glasgow Boys. The leading figures of the first wave were James Paterson (1854–1932) and William York Macgregor (1855-1923), and the group used to meet at Macgregor's studio. The second wave was represented in Joseph Crawhall (1861–1913), Thomas Millie Dow (1848-1919), James Guthrie (1859–1930), George Henry (1858–1943), E. A. Hornel (1864–1933),

James Whitelaw Hamilton James Whitelaw Hamilton (1860–1932) RSA, RSW was a Scottish artist, member of the Glasgow School (the ''Glasgow Boys''), of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) and of the New English Art Club. Career Hamilton was born in Glasgow, where he studie ...

(1860-1932) and E. A. Walton (1860–1922). The third wave of artists were David Gauld (1865–1936), William Kennedy (1859–1918),

John Lavery Sir John Lavery (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was a Northern Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions. Life and career John Lavery was born in inner North Belfast, baptised at St Patrick's Church, Belfast a ...

(1856–1941), Harrington Mann (1864-1937), Stuart Park (1862–1933), William Wells (1872–1923),

David Young Cameron Sir David Young Cameron (28 June 1865 – 16 September 1945) was a Scottish painter and, with greater success, etcher, mostly of townscapes and landscapes in both cases. He was a leading figure in the final decades of the Etching Reviv ...

(1865–1945), Alexander Ignatius Roche (1861–1923),

Arthur Melville Arthur Melville (1855–1904) was a Scottish painter of Orientalist subjects, among others. Early life and art education Arthur Melville was born in Loanhead-of-Guthrie, Forfarshire (now Angus, Scotland) on 10 April 1855. The family moved ...

(1855–1904), Thomas Corsan Morton (1859-1928), James Nairn (1859–1904), George Pirie (1863-1946) and John Quinton Pringle (1864–1925). Their main influences were that of Japanese print, French Realism including

Jules Bastien-Lepage Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that emerged from the later phase of the Realist movement. His most famous work is his land ...

, and

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

, but all of their experiences around the world greatly impacted on and inspired their work, in particular in Spain, North Africa, and Japan. The group was constantly influenced by what they saw in the world around them and strove to display these images by utilizing the techniques of realism and naturalism; they had a passion to depict things as they actually are. This is one of the reasons that the group often chose to work outdoors. Working outdoors allowed them to produce paintings that were as true to nature as possible and it allowed them to paint realistic objects in their natural environment. They painted real people in real places. The production of naturalistic paintings was new to this time period, and thus their techniques were considered to be innovative. Similarly, the pieces often created a sense of movement, an accurate (or naturalistic) depiction of light and shade, and extremely realistic texture. This made them stand out in the art community. File:Joseph Crawhall - James Guthrie At His Easel 1885.jpg, ''James Guthrie At His Easel'' by Joseph Crawhall, 1885. File:Thomas Millie Dow - Spring 1886.jpg, ''Spring'' by Thomas Millie Dow, 1886 File:Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon by Sir James Guthrie.jpg, ''Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon'' by Sir James Guthrie, c. 1924 – c. 1930 File:Bluette by Edward Arthur Walton, 1891, NGS.JPG, ''Bluette'' by

Edward Arthur Walton Edward Arthur Walton (15 April 1860 in Glanderston House, Barrhead, Renfrewshire – 18 March 1922 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish painter of landscapes and portraits, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Life Edward was one ...

, 1891 File:Alexander Mann - Portrait of a Girl at Dusk.jpg, ''Portrait of a Girl at Dusk'' by Alexander Mann (date unknown; d. 1908) File:William York Macgregor-Cerca de Dover.jpg, ''Near Dover'' by William York Macgregor, 1921

Collections and exhibitions

A large collection of work from the Glasgow Boys is held in the

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. It reopened in 2006 after a three-year refurbishment and since then has been one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. The museum has 22 galleries, h ...

, where one room is dedicated to the group. The museum houses more than 60 of the Boys' pieces that were created between 1880 and 1900, arguably the time period in which their best, and most innovative, pieces were produced. More of their works can be found on display at the

Burrell Collection The Burrell Collection is a museum in Glasgow, Scotland, managed by Glasgow Museums. It houses the art collection of Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell. The museum reopened on 29 March 2022 with free entry, having been closed for ...

Broughton House Broughton House is an 18th-century town house standing on the High Street of Kirkcudbright, Scotland. It was the home of Scots impressionist artist E. A. Hornel between 1901 and his death in 1933. During this time Hornel remodelled the house ...

Paisley Museum and Art Galleries Paisley Museum and Art Galleries is currently closed for refurbishment and is due to reopen 2024. It is a museum and public art gallery located in the town of Paisley and is run by Renfrewshire Council. It houses one of the largest municipal art ...

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

and the

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology ...

References

Bibliography

*Billcliffe, Roger. ''The Glasgow Boys''. John Murray, London. *''The Glasgow Boys and Girls: Painting in Scotland Book of Postcards'': The National Galleries of Scotland.

External links

The Glasgow Girls & artworks by Jessie M King from the Permanent Collection of the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries, Scotland
{{Twentieth-century Scotland Art Nouveau Post-Impressionism Scottish art Scottish artist groups and collectives Victorian era 19th century in Glasgow 20th century in Glasgow