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Showing posts with the label Art

Pollok House and Estate, Spanish Art, European Emblems and links to European language learning

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  Pollok House Pollok House is the last of a series of houses built on the same site, as homes for members of the ancient and celebrated Maxwell, later Stirling Maxwell family. Pollok House was gifted to the City of Glasgow in 1966, and is managed for the city by the National Trust for Scotland. https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/pollok-house Photos of Pollok House : J Wilson Spanish Art The elegant Georgian House, with a magnificent view south over and beyond the White Cart river, was built in 1752. It is fundamentally Georgian with sympathetic early twentieth-century additions. One of its most important aspects now though dates from rather later: the collection of Spanish art (as well as works by Rubens, Raeburn, William Blake and others) amassed by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878, initially William Stirling) who at different points in his career was the MP for Perthshire, Rector of both St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities, and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. ...

European Links at University of Glasgow (founded 1451)

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The University was founded in 1451, so is Scotland's second oldest after St Andrews. A Papal Bull established this - signed by Pope Nicholas  https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/papal-bull/  so this is a link with Rome, Italy! The interior doors of the Hunterian Museum (University of Glasgow) are carved by the famous sculptor and artist Eduardo Paolozzi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Paolozzi   and  https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/collections/collectionsummaries/art/sculpture/ Entrance to the Hunterian Museum is in the image below ...   Photos : J. Wilson The University of Glasgow is Part of CIVIS European University ! https://civis.eu/sv/nyheter/the-civis-european-university-welcomes-the-university-of-glasgow-as-associate-partner Photos : J.Wilson Interesting history of Scotland's ancient Universities and links to Europe -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_universities_in_Scotland   From the above reference, a few snippets are ...

Sir William Burrell's former Home - a collector of European artworks

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At Great Western Terrace, just off Great Western Road, we can see the grand house which was previously the residence of Sir William Burrell, the shipping magnate and philanthropist and collector of art, sculpture and tapestries. He bought the house in 1901.   The house, and terrace were designed by Alexander “Greek” Thomson (1817-1875). Burrell collected many artworks from across continental Europe, and the various items are now housed as a collection at the Burrell Collection in Pollok Park in the South Side of Glasgow. Due to reopen in 2021, though the exact date is currently a bit uncertain due to Covid. https://www.homesubjects.org/2019/11/26/william-burrell-domestic-display-and-gothic-things/ He made his fortune from his family shipping business and collected art all his life.  Photos : J. Wilson Burrell donated 6,000 pieces that he had collected to the city of Glasgow and in addition provided the city with funds to build a museum to house the collection. This led to...

The Hidden Lane Gallery and Austrian link to Hilda Goldwag

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Very interesting history about the artist Hilda Goldwag, who as a young person had to flee Austria: http://hiddenlanegallery.com/exhibitions/hilda-goldwag-drawings-from-the-dustbin-or-what-the-lawyers-missed/ There was an exhibition of her work at the Hidden Lane Gallery off Argyle Street Glasgow Photo: J.Wilson Map Reference: Eurowalk 5: Around Kelvingrove

House for an Art Lover and a German competition

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The house was recreated finally in 1990, from drawings by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald. The House for an Art Lover was an entry into a German design competition to design a “Haus Eines Kunstfreundes” or “Art Lovers House” set by German design magazine “Zeitschrift Fur Innendekoration”. Mackintosh's designs arrived late so were excluded, but when the other competitors saw what he had produced, they withdrew from the competition! https://www.houseforanartlover.co.uk/about/history-of-the-house The House for an Art Lover features in the background of the painting by Jenny Wilson (whole painting is here  http://www.jenniferwilsonart.co.uk/wedding.html )  which alludes to the painting The Opera of the Seas by Margaret MacDonald  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_MacDonald_-_Opera_Of_The_Seas_1903.jpg Map Reference: Euro Driving Tour

Kelvingrove - masterpieces of Spanish and Dutch Art to be seen! And The Glasgow Boys!

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The European Commission commented in 2019: "As the UK’s top cultural and creative city, Glasgow is home to world-class museums, galleries, family-friendly attractions and an edgy contemporary art scene that shows the city at its energetic finest."  And surely the top Museum venue in Glasgow is Kelvingrove Museum, which was constructed as the Palace of Fine Arts for the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901 and designed by English architect Sir John William Simpson using red sandstone in Spanish Baroque style .  One of the external sculpted figures was carved by the Italian sculptor Aristide Luigi Fabbrucci (1859 - 1903) http://www.glasgowsculpture.com/pg_biography.php?sub=fabbrucci_a# . And another, representing "Religion" was carved by Johan Keller, born in the Hague, Netherlands and who became professor of Sculpture at Glasgow School of Art : http://www.glasgowsculpture.com/pg_biography.php?sub=keller_j# Within the museum itself, probably the most well known an...