The Glasgow Boys, The Glasgow Girls, The Scottish Colourists And The French Connection

Wed 3 March 2010

Harry Fletcher

 

Harry Fletcher is a successful portrait painter and practising artist. He has worked previously as Head of Art and Design in a large Comprehensive School and as an A-level examiner and an Open University tutor. He is now a freelance lecturer and leads art appreciation courses throughout the UK and across Europe. In the 1880s and 1890s, several artistic colonies arose in Europe and America following a style of painting known as ‘naturalism’. The lecture considered the work of three such successful Scottish colonies and the valuable contribution they made to the development of the ‘modern movement’ in art. It introduced the work of  the ‘Glasgow Boys’, a group of young painters who revolutionised Scottish Art at the end of the 19th century, and that of their contemporaries, the ‘Glasgow Girls.’  The lecture then went on to look at the Scottish Colourists, whose work has become widely exhibited, extremely collectable, and recognised worldwide for its vibrant use of colour and form.

 

Suggested Reading

The Glasgow Boys: The Glasgow School of Painters 1875-1895 by Roger Billcliffe; pub. Frances Lincoln (2008)

The Scottish Colourists 1900-1930 by Philip Long; pub. National Gallery of Scotland (2002)

Glasgow Girls: Women in Art and Design 1880-1920 by Jude Burkhauser; pub. Canongate (2001)

 

Exhibitions and Galleries

A major exhibition of the Glasgow Boys work is on show at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow from the 9th April to 27th September 2010 before moving on to the Royal Academy.

The E.A. Hornel picture shown above can be viewed at the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool.