Gabrielle Muriel Keiller (née Ritchie) (10 August 1908 – 23 December 1995) was a Scottish golfer, art collector, archaeological photographer and heir to

Keiller's marmalade Keiller's marmalade is a Scottish marmalade, believed to have been the first commercial brand made in Great Britain. It was first manufactured by James Keiller in Dundee, Scotland, later creating James Keiller & Son, a brand name which became i ...

in Dundee. She

bequest A devise is the act of giving real property by will, traditionally referring to real property. A bequest is the act of giving property by will, usually referring to personal property. Today, the two words are often used interchangeably due to thei ...

ed a large collection of

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

and

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

art to the

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art National Galleries Scotland: Modern (the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art) is part of National Galleries Scotland, which is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Modern houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1 ...

Early life

Keiller was born on 10 August 1908 in

North Berwick North Berwick (; ) is a seaside resort, seaside town and former royal burgh in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately east-northeast of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holi ...

, Scotland, during a golf trip by her parents, Englishwoman Daisy Muriel Hoare and J. Wadsworth Ritchie, an American rancher. She was the older sister of Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth Ritchie, who ran the family's Texas ranch, known as

JA Ranch The JA Ranch is a historic cattle ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon in Armstrong County, Texas. Founded in 1876 by Charles Goodnight and John George Adair, it is the oldest cattle ranching operation in the Texas Panhandle. Its headquarters area wa ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she served as an ambulance driver. Her paternal grandmother was

Cornelia Adair Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie Adair (April 6, 1837 – September 22, 1921) was a Texas ranch landowner. Early life Born Cornelia Wadsworth on April 6, 1837, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was one of six children of James S. Wadsworth and Mary ...

, the American-born

matriarch Matriarchy is a social system in which positions of power and privilege are held by women. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. While those definitions apply in general English, ...

Glenveagh Castle Glenveagh Castle () is a large castellated mansion located in Glenveagh National Park, County Donegal, Ireland and was built in about 1870. History Captain John George Adair built Glenveagh Castle between 1867 and 1873. It stands within th ...

in County Donegal, Ireland who was married to

John George Adair John George Adair (3 March 1823– 4 May, 1885), sometimes known as Jack Adair, born in County Laois, Ireland, was a Scotch-Irish Americans, Scots-Irish businessman and landowner, financier of JA Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Adair had made his ...

, a Scottish-Irish businessman and landowner.

Golf career

Keiller's amateur golf career began in the 1930s under the surname of her second husband, Style. She won the 1948 Ladies' Open Championships in Luxembourg, Switzerland and Monaco, and again in Monaco in 1949. In 1951 she was a finalist in the English Women's Amateur Championship.

Art collector and patron

In the 1930s, Keiller inherited part-ownership of an Adair ranch in Texas from her grandmother. Proceeds from the later sale of this asset enabled her to begin collecting art. As an art patron, Keiller focused upon 20th-century

avant-garde art In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable t ...

. She became interested following a 1960 visit to the

Peggy Guggenheim Collection The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century ...

in Venice, and through exposure to the work of

Eduardo Paolozzi Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi (, ; 7 March 1924 – 22 April 2005) was a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. He is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art. Early years Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi was born on 7 M ...

at the 1960 Venice Biennale. Keiller developed her collection of

and

art with the advice of the artist

Roland Penrose Sir Roland Algernon Penrose (14 October 1900 – 23 April 1984) was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom. During the Second World ...

. Her bequest to the

Scottish National Gallery The National (formerly the Scottish National Gallery) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Play ...

comprised over 170 artworks (including paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings) in addition to a library of manuscripts, rare books, and journals. The collection was exhibited there anonymously in 1988. In 1996, the collection was enhanced by 26 works from the collection of Penrose. Keiller became a patron of both Paolozzi (who was said to have been inspired by her Surrealist collection) and Richard Long. She also commissioned

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

to make a 1976 portrait of her dachshund Maurice. Beginning in the 1950s, Keiller became involved with several arts institutions. She volunteered at the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

from 1976 to 1987, where she was known as the "Marmalade Queen". From 1978 to 1985, she was a member of the

's advisory committee.

Archaeology

Her third husband, Alexander Keiller, had used wealth from his family's marmalade business to pursue interests in archaeology, particularly the stone circles at

Avebury Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in ...

in Wiltshire and the surrounding prehistoric landscape. He bought land to ensure the preservation of the monuments, and in 1938 created a museum at Avebury. After his death in 1955, Gabrielle employed

Isobel Smith Isobel Foster Smith (22 December 1912 – 18 November 2005) was a Canadian-born British archaeologist who is best known for her work at Avebury and its surroundings. Early life and education Smith spent her early life in Ontario, studying for a ...

to make archival records of Alexander's excavations in the 1920s and 1930s. Gabrielle gave the contents of the museum to the nation in 1966, after which it was named the Alexander Keiller Museum. From 1956 to approximately 1970, she assisted

Rupert Bruce-Mitford Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford (14 June 1914 – 10 March 1994) was a British archaeologist and scholar. He spent the majority of his career at the British Museum, primarily as the Keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, ...

in a study of the burial ship

Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeology, Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when an undisturbed ship burial containing a wea ...

, taking photographs of the site.

Personal life

Keiller's second husband was Charles R. Style, a brewery manager. They divorced in 1950. In 1951, she married her third husband, Alexander Keiller (1889–1955), archaeologist and family heir of Keiller marmalade makers in Dundee. The couple bought a house in

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

, where she lived for most of the rest of her life. Keiller died at

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

on 23 December 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keiller, Gabrielle 1908 births 1995 deaths Scottish female golfers People from North Berwick Archaeological photographers Scottish socialites Scottish women photographers Scottish philanthropists Wadsworth family Scottish art collectors Golfers from North Berwick 20th-century Scottish sportswomen