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Newsletter No.1 | 28 January, 2002 |
Welcome to our first Newsletter:
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Many thanks to all of you who have visited our infant website and taken the trouble to subscribe to our Newsletter. We have had a great reception so far, and some very kind comments, which more than compensate for all those long hours getting it ready, to say nothing of the fifteen years Gary spent researching the subject beforehand. It just goes to show what a bit of solid determination can do.
As I said, the initial reception has been very good, but we have already earmarked areas for improvement. The Bibliography has been re-written, it now contains references to over 200 texts, almost all of which |
have been used in the research for our website.
Thanks again for visiting us and do send us an email if you would like to comment on our website or if you have anything to add to our research. And please don't forget to let all your friends know. See you on the website! Tim Gardner
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New biographies during January:
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Boschetti (fl. 19th Century). Little seems to be known about this Italian sculptor. We tell the story of, apparently, his only recorded public work in Britain La Innocenza (trans: The Innocent Girl). | top |
Peddie & Kinnear (fl. 1848-94). This is a four-in-one biography of the architectural firm and its three partners. Hugely prolific, they received commissions for buildings of every type throughout Scotland and designed in all the fashionable styles. They also designed some of the most elegant Classical churches in Glasgow. | top |
William Stark (1770-1814). Stark was born in Dunfermline, Fife and had a great influence on the development of the Classical revival in Scotland. Amongst his works of note are St George's Tron Church, Buchanan Street (1809) and the Lunatic Asylum (1809, dem. 1910). | top |
New photo galleries during January:
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![]() The sculptor was Albert Hodge (1875-1917).
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![]() The sculptor was Paul Raphael Montford (1868-1938).
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![]() There are others, such as the Chookie Burdies, on lampposts in Garnethill, which we still have to add. | top |
Recommend us to a friend:
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Please forward this newsletter on to any of your friends or colleagues who you feel may be even remotely interested in Glasgow or Sculpture. Even if they aren't now, I'm sure they soon will be. | top |
Glasgow News:
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David Mach, the Fife-born sculptor, now living in London, is returning to Glasgow to stage a solo show at the Gallery of Modern Art. His works are usually on a colossal scale, so we never know quite what to expect. This show, though, is a photograph project and requires all Glaswegians, wherever they may be, to donate their photographs. He wants action-packed snapshots of ordinary Glaswegians to help him make four giant collages of the city, which will then join the permanent collection in the gallery. You can donate your photographs by dropping them off at any Glasgow Museum or sending them to: David Mach Exhibition, Gallery of Modern Art, Queen Street, Glasgow G1 3AZ. Photographs cannot be returned and their use is not guaranteed. The exhibition will run from March 22 to September 29. Source: The Herald, 07 January, 2002. | top |
Inside Story:
Robert Burns in Glasgow.
Glasgow had missed a golden opportunity to 'discover' Burns in 1786 when the city's publishers declined to publish his Cottar's Saturday Night, but can at least claim to have encouraged him to stay in Scotland and seek an Edinburgh publisher. In the event, it was during his journey home that he found his first publisher, John Wilson, who produced the famous Kilmarnock Edition which made his name. Burns was a frequent visitor to Glasgow and stayed at the Black Bull Hotel in Argyle Street (later Mann Byars), and it was from here that he wrote love letters to Agnes McLehose, whom he wooed as Clarinda to his Sylvander, and who lived in a house in St. Andrew's Square.
In the 19th Century, Glasgow's sculptors regularly worked on commissions involving portraits of Burns, including marble busts, architectural sculpture and public monuments. John Mossman was particularly noted for his contribution of a number of Burns portraits to Glasgow's buildings. His bust of Burns representing Poetry can be seen on the Queen's Rooms (now Hindu Mandir), 1 La Belle Place, where it is part of a great sculpture scheme devised by architect Charles Wilson to depict the rise of civilization and the development of the arts. Burns takes his place on the west front in a gallery of portrait busts of other important artists and men of letters (1854-7).
Photographs of the statue being lowered from the attic ballustrade of the Citizens Theatre appeared in the press at the time, including the Glasgow Herald, on 12 July 1977 (pp. 6, 8); 15 July 1977 (p. 15); and 14 September 1979 (p. 6). Another Glasgow sculptor fond of Burns was William Kellock Brown, who competed in the Paisley Burns Monument competition of 1893, but without success. His magnificent model for the competition, of Burns standing on a tall, architectural pedestal, was published in the architectural press after F.W. Pomeroy had been announced as the competition's winner. Other Burns portraits by Kellock Brown include The Thresher, a large-scale, bronze statue on display in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The sculptor was also said to have been working on a 'Colossal' (unlocated) statue of Burns at the time of his death, in 1934.
Another lost portrait is the plaster statue of Burns which was modelled by Scott Sutherland for the Scotland Pavilion at the Empire Exhibition held in Bellahouston Park in 1938. This was lost, together with statues of other great Scots, when the building was demolished soon after the exhibition closed.
Ewing's statue ranks amongst the best depictions of the poet in a standing, contemplative pose, and for the accuracy and treatment of its portrait and costume. His depiction of Burns as a 'superior Scottish peasant' holding the 'wee crimson-tipped flower', which inspired one of his best loved poems, won both public and official acclaim on its unveiling on 25th January 1877, but this was too late to prevent Ewing's reputation being severely dented by the earler bad publicity, or to stop him from departing for America soon afterwards, leaving his brother James Alexander Ewing, to provide the statue's pedestal with its trio of panels depicting scenes from Burns' life and work, in 1885. Author: Gary Nisbet | top |
Book Choice:
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Sculpture in Glasgow, an illustrated handbook.
Published by The Foulis Archive Press with Neil Baxter Associates.
Buy this book from... This title is not available from... | top |
Don't forget to use the [F11] key:
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When browsing our website you may find that you need more room to view enlarged portrait-size pictures. That is where the [F11] key comes in. Press this key and you will get a full screen with just a narrow tool-bar at the top. If you liked that then right-click on the narrow tool-bar and select Auto-Hide. This will hide the tool-bar itself whenever you are not using it. Just slide the mouse-pointer towards the top of the screen and it will appear again.
Unfortunately, this only works for MS Internet Explorer browsers. | top |
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If you wish to change the email address we send your Newsletter to, then please send an email to changeaddress, not forgetting to put your new address in the message field (just click on the underlined email address). If you would like to cancel your subscription completely, please send a blank email to cancel (just click on the underlined email address). In any case please be assured that we never pass on email addresses to any third party for any reason whatsoever. If you cancel an email address with us, then that address will be permanently removed from all our files. | top |
Contact us.
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Email for general enquiries and information.
Email Tim Gardner, the editor and webmaster. Email Gary Nisbet, the historian. | top |
Copyright 2002 www.glasgowsculpture.com | top |