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

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

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 ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

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 of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It was the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of ...

). Glasgow experienced an

economic boom An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with ...

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 construction, constructi ...

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. With a keen eye for detail and a Creativity, creative flair, an ...

and

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

The Four (the "Spook School")

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

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and glass artist 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 an English given name or last name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'the French.' The male version of the name in English is Francis (given name), Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "F ...

and Herbert MacNair. 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 The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

, 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 Bakumatsu, forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1 ...

, 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 tradit ...

world of continental

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. 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 the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

including

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

and Frances MacDonald, both of whom were members of The Four, Jessie M. King, Annie French, Helen Paxton Brown, Jessie Wylie Newbery, Ann Macbeth, Bessie MacNicol, Norah Neilson Gray,Glasgow Girls On Display
Mary Selwood, accessed July 2010 Stansmore Dean, Dorothy Carleton Smyth, Eleanor Allen Moore, De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar, Marion Henderson Wilson, 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; ) 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 design. These are all awa ...

had a significant period of "international visibility." This is sometimes attributed to the "influential" and "progressive" head of the art school, Fra Newbery, 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 women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. "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 (), was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the Scottish Government as well as National Lottery funds ...

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 Frances MacDonald, 1905 File:Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh - Opera of the Winds.jpg, ''Opera of the Winds'' by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, 1903 File:Bessie MacNicol - The Goose Girl 1898.jpg, ''The Goose Girl'' by Bessie MacNicol, 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 was interpreting and expanding the

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), 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 a ...

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 are typically desc ...

, prosaic scenes from in and around Glasgow. Their colourful 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 Thomas Millie Dow (28 October 1848 – 3 July 1919) was a Scottish artist and member of the Glasgow Boys school. He was a member of The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the New English Art Club. Early life and educatio ...

(1848–1919), James Guthrie (1859–1930), George Henry (1858–1943), E. A. Hornel (1864–1933), James Whitelaw Hamilton (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 an Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions. Life and career John Lavery was born in inner North Belfast, on 20 March 1856 and baptised at St Patrick's Church ...

(1856–1941), Harrington Mann (1864–1937), Stuart Park (1862–1933), William Wells (1872–1923), David Young Cameron (1865–1945),

Alexander Ignatius Roche Alexander Ignatius Roche (17 August 1861 – 10 March 1921) RSA NEAC RP was a Scottish artist in the late 19th century and an important figure in the "Glasgow Boys". Life He was born in the Gallowgate in Glasgow, the son of a milliner, Alexand ...

(1861–1923), Arthur Melville (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 grew out of the Realist movement and paved the way for the development of impressioni ...

, and

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

, 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

, 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, 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, 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 William Burrell, Sir William Burrell and Constance Burrell, Constance, Lady Burrell. The museum opened in 1983 and reopened on ...

, Broughton House,

Paisley Museum and Art Galleries Paisley Museum and Art Galleries is a museum in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, Scotland. It is currently closed for refurbishment and is due to reopen in 2026 with the title of Paisley Museum. It is located in the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, ...

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 The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...

and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.

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