The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

-style building, located in the centre of

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

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 ...

. The building houses a museum and art gallery with a collection of fine and decorative art as well as a natural history collection. It is protected as a Category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. The concept for the building was originally commissioned as a memorial to Prince Albert and intended to contain room for lectures, museum, picture gallery and a reference library for students by the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chi ...

. It was agreed that the funding for the building should be provided by the inhabitants of Dundee. Although the city could not afford such a lavish memorial outright, it did contribute £300. A guaranteed fund of £4,205 15/- from 168 contributors was collected, which included a large donation from the Baxter family that totalled £420. The building was designed by the architect

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

, who was an expert for the restoration of medieval churches and advocate of the Gothic architectural style. He intended to design a large tower like in his previous work at St. Nikolai, Hamburg. The foundations were situated in a small

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

called Quaw Bog at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of the Scourin Burn and Friar Burn, which has since been drained. This meant that the area under the building site was underpinned by large wood beams. However, when construction began in 1865, the ground proved too unstable to support the larger tower that he envisaged. The building was opened as the ''Albert Institute'' in 1867. Two further sections, which extended the building by four art galleries and four museum galleries, were added by 1889. The central section was designed to Scott's intention by David MacKenzie, with the Eastern Galleries by William Alexander. The contents of the ''Watt Institute'', founded in 1848, were incorporated into the collection before the opening of the civic museum and art gallery in 1873. Between 1873 and 1949, the buildings were administrated as part of public library service. From 1959, the city corporation took over the running of the administration. Following a later refurbishment, the building now commemorates Maurice McManus, the Lord Provost from 1962 to 1967. Initially retitled McManus Galleries, after refurbishment in 2010, it is now formally known as The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum. Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856–1941)

In 1976, cracks were discovered in south-east corner of the building. The subsequent survey found that the building was partially subsiding. During 1979, remedial measures involved placing load-bearing

concrete piles A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural elemen ...

and cross-beams positioned to replace rotted timbers. The building was closed to the public on 24 October 2005 for a £7.8-million redevelopment by Page\Park Architects and was reopened to the public on 28 February 2010. Currently, much of the McManus collection, which includes works by Dundee-based artists

James McIntosh Patrick James McIntosh Patrick, OBE RSA (4 February 1907 – 7 April 1998) was a Scottish painter, celebrated for his finely observed paintings of the Angus landscape and Dundee, Scotland, where he was based for most of his life. Life Born in Dunde ...

and

Alberto Morrocco Alberto Morrocco (14 December 1917 – 10 March 1998) was a Scottish artist and teacher. He is famous for his works featuring landscapes of Scotland and abroad, still-life, figure painting and interiors, but perhaps his best known works are his ...

, is located at the former Carnegie Library on Barrack Street. The collection includes three paintings by

Thomas Musgrave Joy Thomas Musgrave Joy (9 July 1812 – 7 April 1866) was a British portraitist. Life Joy was born on 9 July 1812 in Boughton Hall (Kent), Boughton Hall in Boughton Monchelsea where his father was the squire. His parents, Thomas and Susanah, were ...

which celebrate

Grace Darling Grace Horsley Darling (24 November 1815 – 20 October 1842) was an English lighthouse keeper's daughter. Her participation in the rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked ''Forfarshire'' in 1838 brought her national fame. The paddlesteamer ...

's rescue of passengers on the paddlesteamer ''Forfarshire''.

Suzanne Fagence Cooper Suzanne Fagence Cooper is a British non-fiction writer who has written extensively on the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian women. Education and career Fagence Cooper received a BA in history from Oxford University and spent 12 years as a curator o ...

, ‘Joy, Thomas Musgrave (1812–1866)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 5 Oct 2013
/ref>

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:McManus Category A listed buildings in Dundee Art museums and galleries in Scotland George Gilbert Scott buildings Museums in Dundee Local museums in Scotland Decorative arts museums in Scotland Natural history museums in Scotland 1867 establishments in Scotland Museums established in 1867