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Showing posts with the label France

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. ...

Huntershill - Birthplace of Thomas Muir

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Huntershill in Bishopbriggs is the birthplace of Thomas Muir - a Scottish hero, who along with others, fought for Democracy - in a heroic and dramatic way... He was an advocate and political reformer in the late 18th Century. He died at the age of 33 in revolutionary France. He fought for ordinary people to get a vote, and in the process his story is one of heroism and adventure worthy of a film! Part of the Scottish reform movement, a revolutionary hero in America, appointed Minister of The Scottish Republic by the French Revolutionary Government, as well as an inspiration for Robert Burns, a friend of Thomas Paine (who wrote the "Rights of Man"/"Common Sense") and a leading figure of the Scottish Political Martyrs. He was finally restored to the faculty of Advocates, after more than 200 years, in 2020: https://scottishlegal.com/article/father-of-scottish-democracy-thomas-muir-of-huntershill-restored-to-roll-of-faculty   https://www.thenational.scot/news/18565129.r...

Tigress and Cubs Statue by French Sculptor

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In Kelvingrove Park, this sculpture of a Tigress and Cubs was gifted to Glasgow by an ex Glaswegian John S.Kennedy, then living in New York. It was sculpted by  Auguste Nicolas Cain, a French sculptor . You can see his signature on the statue. Other similar statues by him can be found in New York Central and Les Jardins de Tuileries in Paris http://www.kelvingrovepark.com/heritage-tigress.html Photos : J.Wilson Map Reference: Eurowalk 5 : Around Kelvingrove

Wellington Church and a French Connection

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The design of Wellington Church on University Avenue was reputedly based on that of La Madeleine in Paris. Wellington Church Photo: J. Wilson Map Reference: Eurowalk 5: Around Kelvingrove

Glasgow War Memorial, George Square

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This war memorial is the work of Sculptor Ernest George Gillick ( 1874 – 1951)   and architect, John James Burnet and was erected in 1924. Photo: J Wilson Ernest Gillick, the sculptor was born in Bradford, the son of a local tailor and, aged 11, he left the city and went to Nottingham, where he was apprenticed to a lace designer. He then attended Nottingham School of Art, where he studied under the sculptor, Oliver Shepphard.  At Nottingham he won a scholarship that enabled him to study in London at the Royal College of Art, where he was tutored by the French sculptor, Edouard Lanteri, who helped Ernest obtain a traveling scholarship in 1902 to Italy and Paris. Europe where he gained inspiration for future work. Ernest’s work in the 1930s included sculptures on the memorial to The Missing, at the Vis-en-Artois war cemetery, France. https://www.notjusthockney.info/gillick-ernest-george/ John James Burnet is also mentioned on our tours regardi...

Did you know that Chopin played in Glasgow?

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Chopin played a concert in 1848 in the Merchants' Hall - which at that time was situated in the building later known as the Sheriff Court on the corner of Hutcheson and Ingram streets.  The date was September 27, and anyone who was anybody was there. The cream of west of Scotland society and the aristocracy turned out for the occasion, including the Duchess of Argyll, countless countesses, lords, ladies, and baronesses. The occasion was extremely well-documented. Diarists, commentators, and all the papers were there. The Herald recorded the nineteenth-century equivalent of a city-centre traffic jam as the ''large concourse of carriages began to draw up in Hutcheson Street and the streets adjoining''  The matinée musicale given by Chopin on the 27th of September 1848 in the Merchants? Hall, Glasgow, attracted many a music-lover. The organizer of the concert - John Muir Wood - was told that "so many private carriages had never been seen at any concert in the town...

City of Glasgow College

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City of Glasgow College established relationships with partners across the European Union and participated in many EU Funded projects since 1994. Links were forged with many EU member states including: Finland, Latvia, Germany, France, Netherlands, Slovenia, Malta, Ireland, Spain, and Iceland  City of Glasgow Faculty of Nautical studies- took part in a 3 year project to investigate innovative educational ideas around decision making partnering up with 6 other nautical colleges including IMT Atlantique, France and the French Naval Academy  https://www.imt-atlantique.fr/sites/default/files/Dahoy/Dahoy-brochure-V.finale.pdf The new campus on Cathedral Street: Photos: J.Wilson And the Campus on the River Clyde near Glasgow Green: Map Reference:  Eurowalk 1: Cathedral and Necropolis to Bucks Head Building

Did you know Rennie Mackintosh was awarded a European Scholarship to Italy?!

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Photos : J Wilson At 97 Buchanan Street.  This tea room was one of a number of buildings in Glasgow that were designed by Glasgow's famous architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The building also features work by Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh.   Upon the death of architect Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson in 1875, a travelling scholarship was founded in his name and awarded every three years for the study of ancient classical architecture. In 1890, Charles Rennie Mackintosh was awarded this scholarship and embarked on a sketching tour to Italy. Other Mackintosh buildings to visit in the City In the town centre there is Mackintosh at the Willow on Sauchiehall Street, The Lighthouse building off Buchanan Street and the site of Glasgow School of Art but sadly it has currently burned down in a recent fire, but the location may be of interest nonetheless. and in the West End there is the Mackintosh House. On Maryhill Road there is the Mackintosh Church And in Bellahouston Park in the ...