Scotland was far from being a backwater of European culture between 1880 and 1930. Possibly it was the industrial society and small population of Scotland that gave a group of artists in this period both the alienation and the confidence to make their mark on the art world.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was perhaps the most famous Glaswegian artist and architect. Charles was the son of Margaret Rennie and William Mackintosh, William was Chief Clerk for the Glasgow police.
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| Charles Rennie Mackintosh |
His paintings in the 1890s such as Part Seen – Part Imagined seem to be related to those of Aubrey Beardsley who produced similar styles in the early 1890s (Mucha was later).
However, Charles extracted the essence of the style and used it in interior design as well as art.
Charles Rennie MacIntosh met Margaret MacDonald in 1892 (married 1900), an accomplished artist whose sister, Frances, and her husband James Herbert MacNair were also artists. The two sisters, MacIntosh and MacNair are sometimes called the “Four” or the “Spook School” but Charles Rennie MacIntosh is without doubt the outstanding artist in the group.
In 1900 the Mackintoshes contributed to the 8th Vienna Secession and gained a commission for the Warndorfer Music Salon in Vienna. In 1902 he created the Mackintosh Room at the Turin International Exhibition and exhibited in Moscow and Berlin.
"Art is the Flower. Life is the Green Leaf. Let every artist strive to make his flower a beautiful living thing, something that will convince the world that there may be, there are, things more precious more beautiful - more lasting than life itself." Mackintosh, Glasgow 1902
As an architect he is particularly famous for designing the Glasgow School of Art building and the Willow Tea Rooms. He worked for, and was later a partner in, the architectural practice “Honeyman and Keppie” until 1913 when he set up his own practice.
In 1923 Mackintosh moved to Port Vendres in Southern France and concentrated on watercolours, especially landscapes.
The Glasgow Boys – The Glasgow School of Painters
While Mackintosh was forging a new style of art an artist's collective, known as The Glasgow Boys, were putting a northern twist on Naturalism. The twist was partly the northern light. The Scottish light gives the paintings of the Glasgow Boys a subtlety that is often criticised for not being as bright or colourful as more southern painting.
The Glasgow Boys were led by James Guthrie and William MacGregor and met at MacGregor's studio.
It is often said that the Glasgow Boys were heavily influenced by the Naturalist style of Jules Bastien-Lepage, a French artist who exhibited in Britain. The evidence for this is that three of the Glasgow Boys, Guthrie, Lavery and Crawhall, studied and copied works by Bastien-Lepage. However, this form of naturalism – a type of pre-Impressionist naturalism - was popular in 1880s Britain and produced by many artists. Guthrie was probably most influenced by Bastien-Lepage of the "Boys". The Glasgow Boys were also influenced by the writings of James McNeil Whistler.
The Boys were brought together by the difficulty of getting their art accepted by the Scottish Art Establishment. Conventional Victorian artists in Scotland tended to specialise in scenes of the highlands and lochs painted in the studio. These established artists were particularly fond of mixing their paints with sticky “megilp”, which contains mastic resin, to give them a shine. The Boys nicknamed the established artists “gluepots”.
A list of the Glasgow Boys is given below:
Core members:
Joseph Crawhall (1861–1913)
James Guthrie (1859–1930)
George Henry (1858–1943)
Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933)
Edward Arthur Walton (1860–1922)
John Lavery (1856–1941)
William Kennedy (1859–1918)
James Paterson (1854–1932)
William York Macgregor (1855-1923)
Others associated with the group:
David Gauld (1865–1936)
Thomas Millie Dow (1848-1919)
Harrington Mann (1864-1937)
Stuart Park (1862–1933)
William Wells (1872–1923)
David Young Cameron (1865–1945)
Alexander Ignatius Roche (1861–1923)
Arthur Melville (1855–1904)
Thomas Corsan Morton (1859-1928)
James Nairn (1859–1904)
George Pirie (1863-1946)
John Quinton Pringle (1864–1925)
James Guthrie (1859–1930)
Guthrie's father was a church minister. Guthrie was self taught and never went to Paris, unlike many of the other Glasgow Boys. Although, initially, a rebel, like most of the other “Boys” he became very successful. He was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1888, and a full member in 1892 becoming President in 1902, and knighted in 1903. In 1920 the King of Belgium conferred Guthrie with the Cross of Commander of the Order of the Crown.
Guthrie's paintings focussed on images from Scottish country life that were in a natural style. One of his most famous paintings is “A Hind's Daughter” in 1884 - a “Hind” was a farm servant. This picture shows the sentimental naturalism of Bastien-Lepage and was suitable for the late Victorian market. It is also an exceptionally fine painting.
Joseph Crawhall (1861–1913)
Crawhall was born in Northumberland and studied at Kings College London and, in 1882, in Paris. He specialised in Animal paintings.
John Lavery 1856-1941
The Irish born artist John Lavery was one of the most conventionally successful members of the group. He was a sought after portrait painter and was knighted and elected to the Royal Academy in 1921.
Perhaps Lavery's most famous picture is a portrait of his American wife as Cathleen ni Houlihan, an Irish heroine, which appeared on Irish banknotes from 1927 until the 1970s.
Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933)
Edward Hornel was born in Australia but his Scottish born parents returned to Kirkcudbright in Scotland in 1866. Hornel was educated at Edinburgh School of Art and then spent two years studying with Michel Verlat in Antwerp before returning to Scotland in 1885 when he fell in with the Glasgow Boy's Art Commune.
He was a close friend of George Henry and they worked together on “The Druids Bringing in the Mistletoe” (1890):
In 1893-4 Henry and Hornel went to Japan to study Japanese art.He was not above painting commercial paintings:
George Henry (1858–1943)
Henry was born in Ayrshire studied at the Glasgow School of Art and also painted for a while at Kirkcudbright. His “A Galloway Landscape” painted in 1889 is a truly “modern” interpretation of landscape painting.
Twee?
Henry collaborated with Hornel and the Japanese influence can be measured by comparison of his later works with Geisha Girl, painted in 1894
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| Geisha Girl |
Henry partly made a living from portrait painting later in life and became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy and an associate of the Royal Academy.
Other Glasgow Boys
William MacGregor was a founder member of the group:
Edward Walton
Walton's “Berwickshire Field Workers” , painted in 1884 incorporates much of the new Impressionist techniques. Walton was also rather poor at faces so the use of “Uglies”, as the hats are known, was an advantage for the artist.
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| James Paterson. Craigen Puttock 1882 |
The Scottish Colourists
In the 1920s and 1930s a group of four Scottish artists formed the "Scottish Colourists":
Samuel John Peploe (1871—1935),
John Duncan Fergusson (1874—1961),
George Leslie Hunter (1877—1931)
Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1871—1935).
Peploe, Fergusson and Cadell were born and educated in Edinburgh. Peploe and Fergusson attended the Trustees Academy of Art and Cadell attended the Royal Scottish Academy Life School. Hunter was born on the Isle of Bute and his family emigrated to California. When he was 15, returning to Scotland in 1914.
Fergusson was a friend of Peploe and they painted together in Paris before WWI Hunter became friends with Fergusson in the 1920s and they travelled to Venice, Florence and the Riviera together.. Cadell was a friend of Samuel Peploe and they holidayed in Iona together. The Scottish Colourists were a widely travelled group of friends with strong interests in French art, especially the Post Impressionists and Fauves. From 1924 onwards the group collectively displayed their art together.
John Duncan Fergusson (1874—1961)
Fergusson spent 1904-1909 in Paris, often painting with Samuel Peploe. He met and began a relationship with an American artist, Anne Rice.
His early work is distinctly Fauvist and owes much to Matisse:
By 1910 Fergusson was a mainstream Fauve artist;
Fergusson was specially gifted at female portraits.
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| Le Voile Persan 1909 |
Samuel John Peploe (1871—1935)
Peploe left Edinburgh for Paris in 1895 where he studied at the Académie Julian and Académie. In 1901 he returned to Scotland. In 1910 he married Margaret MacKay and moved to Paris for two years. Peploe is particularly famed for still life painting:
Manet's influence is particularly evident in “The Coffee Pot”. A distinctive, Peploe style, developed over the next two decades.
George Leslie Hunter (1877—1931)
Hunter emigrated with his parents to California at the age of 15. He became a successful graphic artist, starting work in 1896 at the age of 19. He worked for a range of publications in San Francisco. In 1904 he visited Paris and resolved to become a fine artist. He returned to San Francisco but lost his early paintings in the 1906 earthquake. He then returned to Scotland and spent much time in Paris and Etaples. The First World War kept him in Scotland where he had exhibited his work and consolidated his style although his style is still variable, with dark, loosely drawn scenes as well as colourful pictures..
Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937)
Cadell was born in Edinburgh and went to Paris in 1899, at the age of 16, to study at the Académie Julian for three years He returned to Scotland for most of the pre-war years but visited Venice in 1910 and this exposure to the Mediterranean sun led to a vivid use of colour in his work. After 1912 he regularly visited Iona for artistic inspiration.
