The Glasgow Boys, Part 1

Image: George Henry , Girl Reading (courtesy of the Fleming Collection).

This is one of a series of lectures on the Glasgow Boys and Girls by Prof Maria Chester, which is being delivered online. No previous knowledge is assumed.

The Glasgow Boys were a group of young Glasgow-based artists that came together to challenge the pre-eminence of Edinburgh and its RSA-Royal Scottish Academy. They were a loose collective of around twenty artists whose fresh approach to outdoor paintings focussed on the everyday life of real people rather than the romanticised ‘noble peasants’ of conventional Victorian art. By the end of the 19th century, they produced some of Scotland’s most innovative and well-loved paintings. They became the most significant group of artists working in Britain before the Scottish Colourists. Among them were: William York Macgregor, Joseph Crawhall, George Henry, Edward Atkinson Hornel, Sir John Lavery and Arthur Melville.

This lecture will introduce the historical framework of life in Europe at the end of the 19th century as well as a brief description of the art movements which inevitably influenced the Scottish painters. Glasgow was to become internationally recognised in the period preceding the First World War as a centre for avant-garde movements in architecture, the decorative arts and painting. We will also look at the artist’s colony in neighbouring Cocksburnpath where the Boys would work ‘en plein air’ as the Impressionists did.

Lectures will be delivered via Zoom. If you haven’t used Zoom before, please go to www.zoom.us and look at the tutorials. An invitation to the lecture will be emailed to you.

If you book this course online, we will hold your personal data in accordance with our privacy policy. If you do not wish us to hold your personal data, please book by post (see www.berwickea.co.uk) and do not supply an email address.