Showing 106 results

Person/Organisation
The Glasgow School of Art - Archives and Collections Person

Jackson, Harold

  • P874
  • Person
  • 1921-2012

The son of a wealthy businessman in Berlin, Hans was expelled from the Friedrichs Real Gymnasium under the anti-Jewish legislation of the 1930’s. Unable to pursue his intended career he became a carpentery apprentice in the trade school of the Jewish community in 1937. He worked unpaid with the Reich's Representation of Jews in Germany ('Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden') until February 1939, then later in the same year, emigrated to England on the Kitchener camp scheme.

Despite initially initially helping at a BBC monitoring centre translating German short-wave radio signals for the War Office, he was deemed an Enemy Alien and was interned on the Isle of Man, later travelling in the HMT Dunera to Australia. He volunteered to join the Pioneer Corps in 1941, was posted back to the UK, and sent to Scotland to build stage sets for the Entertainment Corps. In 1942 he enrolled as an evening student at the GSA taking classes in Drawing and Painting, then in later years switching to Commercial Art and Design.

After the war, he formally anglicised his name to Harold Jackson, took up British citizenship, married and opened a very successful Graphic Design business on Pollokshaws Road in Glasgow. Hugh Jackson Screenprint Ltd. became one of the first companies in Scotland to develop the technique of screen printing on plastic.

Following his first wife’s death in the mid 1980s, he began to paint, producing pictures of his experiences before and during the war which were exhibited at the Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Centre. He also helped create the Garnethill Synagogue’s Esterson Archives Room, now part of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre.

Jamieson, Mother Joanna

  • P875
  • Person
  • 1935-

Mother Joanna Jamieson entered the Glasgow School of Art to study mural painting in 1951 when she was 16. Eventually she was led to the religious life and became a Benedictine nun at Stanbrook abbey. She served there twice in 12 year terms as Abbess, retiring in 2007. She then took a one-year refresher course at the Royal Drawing School in London, where she studied, well into her 70s.

Between 2010 and 2014 she worked on a commission to create a substantial mural, 26 feet by 18 feet in the Grange Restaurant at Buckfast Abbey. The mural depicts the monks building the abbey.

In 2017, age 82, she completed another mural for the Kairos Centre in London depicting Mother Magdalen (Frances) Taylor, who founded the Poor Servants of the Mother of God.

Both murals show her interest in a technique pioneered by Lyonel Feininger, the 20th century German-American expressionist who used overlapping triangular planes of light to convey depth, space and movement.

Joass, John James

  • P876
  • Person
  • 1868-1955

The son of an architect, Joass was born in Dingwall in 1868. After a short period of basic training in his father's office from 1883 to 1885, he was articled to John Burnet & Son in Glasgow, and studied at Glasgow School of Art. He remained there until 1890 when he moved to the office of Robert Rowand Anderson, from where he won the Pugin Studentship in 1892, his final year at the GSA. This was his most significant award from the Art School, but a very successful student, he had previously won a Haldane Bursary prize in 1886 and prizes in local and national competitions in building construction and architectural design.

In 1893 he moved to London to spend a year in the office of Ernest George & Peto, from which he transferred to that of Edward John May in October 1894. He passed the qualifying exam in that year and was awarded the Owen Jones studentship, enabling him to travel to Italy and Sicily, his travels prior to that date having been limited to Scotland and England.

He was admitted ARIBA on 10 June 1895, his proposers being George, John McKean Brydon, and Allan Graham, whom he had known in Glasgow.

Keyden, Sophie

  • P877
  • Person
  • 1879-

The daughter of a Writer (Lawyer), Keyden studied at the GSA from 1898 to 1902. Throughout her time as a student at GSA her address was given as 1 Claremont Terrace, Glasgow. In 1900 she is listed in the GSA Prospectus as being "Commended" for her work in the "Landscape or Seascape in Oil Colour" under the vacation sketching scheme of 1899.

Keyden was one of many GSA students to exhibit in the Turin Exhibition of 1902.

King, James Joseph Francis Xavier

  • P814
  • Person
  • 1855-1933

James Joseph Francis Xavier King (c1855- 5th February 1933)
Fellow of the Entomological Society

GSA Student 1872-1894:

1875: Local examination, 2nd grade prize
1875: Local Prize, anatomy class, £2
1876: National Competition, 3rd grade prize, Stage 23d, ceiling design
1876: Haldane Prize, Stage 23d, design for hall ceiling, Medal & £3
1877: Local Science Examination, 1st class certificate & Queen's Prize
1879: National Competition, 3rd grade prize, Stage3b, ornament in outline from cast
1881: Local examination, 3rd grade certificate, Group 1
1882: Local Science exam., Queen's Prize, machine construction
1886: National Competition, Queen's Prize, Stage 22d, studies of historic styles of ornament
1886: National Competition, 3rd grade prize, Stage 22d, studies of historic styles of ornament
1886: National Competition, advanced section, commended
1886: Local exam., advanced, Stage 22d, design, Good, certificate
1886: Local exam., advanced, elementary principles of ornament, Fair
1887: National Competition, 3rd grade prize, Stage 12a, monochrome
1887:Art Master's Certificate, Group 2, work in Stage 12a accepted towards
1887: Local exam., advanced, sciography, Good, certificate
1888: National Competition: Gold medal, Stage 23c, 2 designs, Persian carpet
1888: National Competition: Owen Jones Bronze medal & prize
1888: Local exam., advanced, elem. principles of ornament, 1st Class
1888: Local Competition, Haldane Medal (design)
1889: National Competition, 3rd grade prize, Stage 22d, historic ornament
1889: Art Master's Certificate, Group 3, works in Stage 22d accepted towards
1889: Local exam., advanced, painting in monochrome, 2nd class
1890: National Competition: 3rd grade prize, Stage 1e, sciography
1890: Art Master's Certificate, Group 6, work in Stage 1e accepted towards
1890: Local exam., advanced, painting ornament in monochrome, 2nd Class
1890: Local exam., advanced, Stage 10a, plant drawing in outline, 2nd class
1891: Local exam., advanced, painting ornament in monochrome, 2nd Class
1892: Art Master's Certificate, Group 3, work in Stage 9a accepted towards
1892: Local exam., advanced, painting ornament in monochrome, 1st Class
1892: Local exam, 2nd grade certificate, elementary modelling, 1st class

GSA Staff 1877 - 1920/21:

Assistant teacher c.1877 – 1878
Teacher 1878 – 1880
Assistant master (Art) 1880 -
Assistant master (Drawing & Painting) 1896
Assistant master (Architecture) perspective and ornament 1896
Assistant master (Arch.) perspective, historic ornament 1897
Assistant master (Art certificate work) 1899 – 1901
Lecturer on geometry, perspective and plant form 1902 – 1903
Instructor (D&P) geometry, perspective 1904 - 1918/19

Conservator and Librarian 1904 - 1920/21

Staff council 1910/11 - 1920/21

Geometry 1919/20

Member of the Staff Council: 1919- 1921

Annual Report 1920-21 notes his retirement
Annual Report 1932-33 notes his death

Between 1885-94 his address is given as 207, Sauchiehall Street.
In 1877 his occupation is listed as Art Master.

The PO Directory of 1901 records his address as 1 Athole Gardens, Kelvinside. He is described as an Art Master at GSA and a lecturer in Economic Entomolgy at the West of Scotland Agricultural College.

King was an accomplished artist who exhibited between 1885 and 1891, particularly at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. In 1891 he had been amongst those who appended their name to the request that the Corporation of Glasgow should purchase Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black (commonly known as Portrait of Thomas Carlyle). He was also an acknowledged expert in neuroptera, the class of flying insects with net-like wings, and published widely on this subject.

At GSA, King lectured in the ornament classes, before moving to geometry, perspective and plant form. He also acted as Conservator, and was charged with looking after School property, safe-keeping student work, preparing works for exhibition and inspection by the Masters, and engaging life models.

In 1909, with the opening of the School’s first purpose-built library designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, he was employed full-time as Librarian.

A 1907 portrait of him by David Forrester Wilson is in the collection of the Hunterian Art Gallery and an oil sketch by Sir John Lavery in the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre.

Lamb, Helen Adelaide

  • P879
  • Person
  • 1893-1991

Born in Prestwick, Lamb studied at Glasgow Art School from 1907/08 to 1914/15, studying Drawing and Painting then Design, and taught Art at St Columba’s School, Kilmacolm, from 1918-1949. A ‘Glasgow Girl’ artist, calligrapher and teacher, she was part of the Scottish embroidery revival.

The Church of Scotland acquired the rights, in 1927, to print copies of her cradle roll, which was used into the 1970s. Lamb was commissioned to produce the Church of Scotland’s Loyal Addresses to King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, all of which are conserved in Windsor Castle.

She died in Dunblane, her family home, where she and her sister, Mildred, had a studio. There is an octagonal room on the ground floor of Dunblane Cathedral named after her in recognition of her outstanding artistic contribution to the cathedral.

Lamb, Mildred R

  • P880
  • Person
  • 1900-

Studied at the GSA from 1922 to 1925. Throughout her time in Glasgow, her registered address was her family home, Bryanston, in Dunblane.

Enrolled on the 'Black and White' course, she was taught by Dorothy Carleton Smyth amongst others. The course included classes in book illustration, lithography, wood engraving, press work in line and wash, fashion plate and other subjects. She later shared a studio in Dunblane with her sister Helen, a fellow artist, calligrapher and GSA alumna.

Langdale, Irene Stella Rolph

  • P881
  • Person
  • 1880 - 1976

Born in Staines, Middlesex, she studied at Brighton Art School before attending the GSA from 1907 to 1910, where she took life classes with Maurice Greiffenhagen and Paul Artot.

Known for her etchings and aquatints, she also produced sculpture. She exhibited at the RSA, RGIFA, the Paris Salon and the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. She worked as a book illustrator for many years and moved to Victoria, Canada, in 1940.

She died in Santa Barbara, California.

Law, William

  • P882
  • Person
  • fl 1890-1892

An aprentice lithographic engraver, Law attended the GSA from 1890 to 1892. His address given as 244 Buchanan Street during his first year of study, then 123 Albert Street. In 1891, he won a Haldane bursary of fifteen shillings and sixpence.

Leiper, William

  • P815
  • Person
  • 1839-1916

William Leiper was born in Glasgow on 21 May 1839, the son of William Leiper who had a private school in George Street, and Jane Mellis, or Myles.

Educated by his father and at Glasgow High School, he served his apprenticeship with Boucher & Cousland from '1855-6' to about 1859 when he went to London, working for John Loughborough Pearson and William White for approximately one year each. There he gained an entrée to the circle of Edward William Godwin and William Burges, who was later to propose him as FRIBA. He was briefly in Dublin supervising the building of Findlater Church for Andrew Heiton, before moving back to Glasgow to join Campbell Douglas & Stevenson.

Leiper's reputation was immediately established by winning the competition for Dowanhill Church, Glasgow in 1864. Its interior was remarkable for its very wide single-span roof, probably inspired by Godwin's at Northampton Town Hall, and for its glass and stencilled decoration by Daniel Cottier.

In some of his less expensive early domestic commissions he adopted the low-pitched roofs and compositional methods of Alexander Thomson, a friend in his early years, notably at Bonnington (now Rhuarden), Helensburgh, Dumbartonshire, and Castlepark, Lanark, which has an unusual combination of Swiss and Anglo Japanese elements.

By 1869 he had developed his own Frenchified version of Scottish baronial with lettered and sculptured towers and turrets at the compactly-composed Colearn, Perthshire, remarkable for its high quality aesthetic movement woodwork, Cottier stained glass and Anglo-Japanese tiles by W B Simpson. Cairndhu, Helensburgh (1871) also had lavish Anglo-Japanese interiors of which a gold ceiling survives. Its exterior was a very early example of Francois Ier revival as was his Partick Burgh Hall, Glasgow, the following year, in which the French architect Alfred Chastel de Boinville may have been involved.

Leiper's commercial commissions were few but impressive. In 1889, as an architectural advertisement for their carpets, he built the polychrome red stone, brick and tile Venetian Gothic Templeton Factory on Glasgow Green and in 1893-94 the gargantuan Francois Ier Sun Insurance Building on Glasgow's West George Street on which William James Anderson and James Salmon Junior also worked and for which Birnie Rhind provided the sculpture, the French being sufficiently impressed to award him a Silver Medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1900.

From his earliest days Leiper was a skilful watercolourist and experimented with photography. In or about 1878 he took a career break to study painting. The reasons are not entirely clear and have been said to relate to disappointments in two limited competitions, , but his partner William Hunter McNab's statement that the City of Glasgow Bank Crash and consequent lack of business was the cause seems more probable. He studied in Paris at Julian's and then at R W Allan's with Arthur Melville. Although the worst years of the depression were still to come, the commission to design the interior of the Tsar's yacht Livadia in 1880 brought him home, his return to architectural practice being marked by his being admitted to FRIBA on 7 November 1881. His proposers were John Honeyman, Pearson and Burges. None of his paintings is in a public collection, but his numerous artist friendships, which included William McTaggart, brought him the commission to supervise the ambitious scheme of murals by The Glasgow Boys in the Banqueting Hall of Glasgow's City Chambers. Leiper was elected associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1891 and full member in 1896. From 1870 onward he exhibited works in watercolour and oil as well as architecture.

Leiper never married. After a protracted illness which resulted from serious blood poisoning in 1903, Leiper was compelled to retire completely in 1909 and his practice was continued by his partner William Hunter McNab, an accomplished designer in the same idiom. Leiper died of a cardiac haemorrhage at Helensburgh on 27 May 1916.

A portrait of him by Colin Hunter hangs in Aberdeen Art Gallery.

MacGregor Whyte, Duncan

  • P923
  • Person
  • 1866-1953

Born in Oban, MacGregor Whyte attended the GSA between 1887 and 1892. He was 21 when he first enrolled, giving his address as 11 Cromwell Street and listing his occupation (or possibly that of his father) as joiner. He later moved to 66 Houston Street.
From Glasgow, he then travelled to Belgium where he studied under Van Havermaet at the State School in Antwerp, Belguim. Further studies led him to Paris to train under Delecuse, Caillot and Delance.

Glasgow Museums holds a number of his paintings as does Edinburgh University, mainly landscapes and island scenes. MacGregor Whyte’s wife Mary Bernard (1870-1946) was also an artist. The couple lived in Oban, but built a studio in Balephuil, Tiree, where MacGregor Whyte regularly painted. He toured and exhibited in Canada and Australia, and stayed in Australia for several years, becoming involved with the West Australian Society of Arts, and serving as President from 1920 to 1921.

He was also worked as a portraitist. Oban Municipal Buildings has two of his pictures depicting Provosts of Oban in the early 1900s, and his painting Dr. Riley, the Archbishop of Perth, which now hangs in the Perth Art Gallery, Australia.

MacGregor Whyte regularly exhibited at the RA, RSA and RGIFI.

Mackendrick, Alexander

  • P884
  • Person
  • 1912-1993

The son of a Glasgow ship builder who had emigrated to the USA, after his father died in the Spanish Flu pandemic following WW1 Mackendrick moved to Glasgow to be brought up by his grandfather. He attended Hillhead High School then enrolled at the GSA in 1926. During three years at Art School he won several minor Travelling Bursaries.

In the early 1930s, MacKendrick moved to London to work as an art director for the advertising firm J. Walter Thompson where he produced cinema commercials. He wrote his first film script with his cousin, Roger MacDougall which was bought and released by Associated British Picture Corporation. During WW2, he made propaganda films for the Ministry of Information. In 1946 Mackendrick joined Ealing Studios as a scriptwriter and production designer, working there for nine years and directing five films, including "Whisky Galore!" and "The Ladykillers". In 1955 he moved to Hollywood, directing "Sweet Smell of Success" and other films and TV commercials in the USA and Europe. In 1969 he became Dean of the Film School of the California Institute of the Arts, giving up the position in 1978 to become a professor at the school.

Mackieson, Andrew

  • P885
  • Person
  • fl 1884-1887

Andrew Mackieson first enrolled at GSA in March 1884 and studied full-time at the School until 1887. He was aged 15 when he joined and his address was given as 136, West Graham Street, Garnethill, Glasgow. In the Student registers his father's occupation is given as Hairdresser. From 1885 onwards Mackieson's own profession is given as Designer, and he seems to have studied primarily in architectural ornament and textile design.
Mackieson was awarded the Haldane medal in 1886 for 6 studies of historical ornament. In addition to the medal he received £1.00 prize money.

MacMaster, Annalexa

  • P886
  • Person
  • fl 1881-1884

Studied at the GSA from 1881 to 1884, the registers record her address as Westbank, Govan. She was awarded a number of prizes and certificates during her Art School career, the most significant being for the best painting from still life in Local Competition in 1883, the same award in Local Competition the following year and also in 1884, National Competition, advanced section, commended.

Maxton, John Kidd

  • P890
  • Person
  • 1878-1942

The son of a draper, Maxton was born in Perth, and studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1899, when he was 21, until 1904.
Maxton gave several addresses whilst at Glasgow School of Art, including "c/o Mrs. Nutton, 97 North Frederick Street", and "c/o G. Ronald, 191 Albert Road".
Maxton worked as an interior designer, before moving to Edinburgh to work as a watercolourist concentrating on Scottish landscapes. In 1936 He exhibited "Springtime by Old Crammond Bridge" at the Royal Scottish Academy, giving his address as 39 Marchmont Road, Edinburgh.

McAllister, Stewart

  • P891
  • Person
  • 1914-1962

Born in Wishaw, McAllister studied painting at the GSA from 1931-1936 where he met future animator, Norman McLaren at the Kinecraft Society. The two produced "Seven Till Five" (1933), a look at a day in the life of Glasgow Art School, (now held by the NLS Moving Image Archive) its rhythmic cutting inspired by their interest in Soviet film.

After a scholarship-funded European tour, McAllister followed McLaren into the GPO Film Unit (later the Crown Film Unit) in 1937 where he worked on stills, posters and graphics. There he met Humphry Jennings and the two went on to form a close director-editor partnership, producing a series of films including “London can take it”, “Listen to Britain” and ‘Fires were Started.” He later worked as a senior editor and producer for British Transport Films until his death from Liver Cancer in 1962.

McCafferty, John

  • P892
  • Person
  • fl 1894-1905

McCafferty studied at the GSA for nine years between 1894 and 1905, first recording his occupation as a piano tuner, but going on to describe himself as a designer, signwriter and painter. He lived at 218 Saracen Street initially, moving to 435 New City Road in 1896, 228 Cambridge Street from 1898, then finally 59 Garscube Road.

McCall, Marion L A

  • P893
  • Person
  • fl 1896-1898

The daughter of a Greenock Ships Chandler, Marion enrolled at the GSA in 1896 when she was 21. The register records her occupation as teacher and her address as 28 Finnart Street, Greenock. She took classes at the Art School for two years.

McCallien, William John

  • P894
  • Person
  • fl 1899-1913

William J McCallien studied at the GSA from 1891 to 1893, registering his home address as Tarbert, Loch Fyne and his occupation as fisherman. A gifted student, he won several prizes during his Art School career, the most significant being 2nd prize for Painting in monochrome in the 1893 Local examination, and 1st prize for Painting from Still Life the following year. Most of his known works are of boats or harbour scenes.

The Argyllshire PO Directory of 1903 has an entry for a WJ McCallien, boat and shoemaker who is presumed to be a relative. His son, Prof William John McCallien FRSE FGS OBE, (1902-1981) was an eminent Scottish geologist.

McCulloch, Ian

  • P895
  • Person
  • 1935-

Born in Glasgow in 1935, McCulloch studied at the GSA from 1953-1957 and was awarded a Royal Scottish Academy Travelling Scholarship the year he left Art School. Elected a Member of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1964, he received Scottish Arts Council Awards in 1967 and 1972, and was elected Academician, Royal Scottish Academy, in 2005.
His work can be found in many public collections including Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow, the City Art Centre, Edinburgh and the Saatchi Collection, London. Although best known as a painter, he has also produced ceramics, sculptures and relief prints.
Winner of the Glasgow International Concert Hall Mural Competition 1989-90, the removal of his painting, “Strathclyde” at the request of the Glasgow Lord Provost caused some controversy at the time.

McGann, Myrna Elizabeth

  • P816
  • Person
  • c1950-

Born in Mandeville, Jamaica, Myrna, (or Betty, as she is better known) did not set out to follow a career in interior design. Her parents sent her to a college in Dublin as they wanted her to study law and accounting, but at the age of 20, soon after her arrival in lreland, Betty suffered from her first brain aneurism. Recuperating with her family in Jamaica, she enjoyed helping a cousin set up a new home, and encouraged by the reaction to her work, decided to study design, enrolling at Glasgow School of Art in 1970.

After studying Furniture Design and Interior Design for two years, she returned to Jamaica and went to work for Paul Methuen who had a successful decorating company in Montego Bay. Working as an Assistant Designer and Production Manager for the company, she had to turn her hand to everything, from designing and sketching plans to producing furniture, upholstery, curtains and lampshades.

Economic uncertainty following Jamaican independence meant Paul Methuen decided to leave the island and Betty took over the business in 1977, suddenly responsible for a 16,000 square foot factory and 130 employees. In the 80’s, with the Seaga revival, Jamaican resorts attracted the international jet set once again and in 1982 Betty was approached to work on a villa for the American designer Ralph Lauren. Other prestigious commissions for celebrities and hotel developments followed.

Selling her factory, Design Centre Ltd. and planning to wind down into retirement, Betty was persuaded to set up a new enterprise with Rosalea Hamilton. The Jamaica Wood Products and Furniture Association was formed in 2002 to support workers in this field. Following further brain anueurisms, Betty had to step back from this role, but retained an active interest in education and passing on skills in Interior Design, with plans to develop a new Art School in Montego Bay inspired by her GSA training.

McGeehan, Annie Louise

  • P897
  • Person
  • 1874-1962

Studied at the GSA from the age of 13, between 1888 and 1893. Born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, ‘Aniza’ was part of a large and artistically gifted family. She attended the GSA with two of her sisters, Jessie and Mary Catherine (who later become a nun, and took the name Sister Callista.)

In 1895 Aniza was the joint winner of a Haldane Travelling Scholarship, worth £50. This financed a trip to Paris in 1896, where she studied at the Colorossi Academy. On her return to Glasgow, she shared a studio at 134 Bath St with Jessie until 1899. After her marriage to Vincent Murphy, a timber merchant, she moved to Liverpool in 1900. She exhibited at the RA, London Summer exhibition 7 times, (1902-1931) – one work each year, mainly portrait busts, and at the RGIFA 11 times, (1894-1930) roughly two works per show.

McGeehan, Jessie Mary

  • P896
  • Person
  • 1872-1950

Studied at the GSA from age 15, between 1887 and 1895. Jessie became a well known artist and exhibited in both oil and watercolour at the RSA and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, from 1892 onwards. In 1901, her work was shown at the Royal Academy in London and the RGIFA. After the GSA, she continued her studies in Paris and may also have spent time painting in Holland, as many of her paintings after 1906 are of Dutch domestic scenes.

Later in her career, she appears to have concentrated more on commissioned work and did not contribute to the major exhibitions. By 1936, Jessie had moved to 152a Renfrew Street, which remained her studio and home for the rest of her life. In an advert that appeared in the Glasgow Observer in October 1936, Jessie was described as a Church Decorator, particularly mosaic fresco work and stained glass windows. An example of this work can be seen in St Augustine’s Church, Langloan, Coatbridge of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour She also produced work for St Aloysius, Garnethill in Glasgow - glass mosaic Stations of the Cross.

McRoberts, Edward Charles

  • P899
  • Person
  • fl 1899-1963

McRoberts enrolled at GSA in 1900 after being awarded a Glasgow City Educational Endowment in 1899. He attended evening classes in modelling (sculpture) over seven years while working, initially as a traveller and manufacturers agent, and latterly as a merchant. The register records his home address as 40 Princes Street, which was also the address of Elizabeth C. McRoberts, aged 19, who attended the GSA in 1901-02 and is presumed to be his sister. His classes were taught by Mr Johannes Keller, a lecturer brought in from Germany by Fra. Newbery, the School's Director at that time.

McRoberts exhibited at the RGIFA annual exhibitions 11 times between 1899 and 1963

Miller, Alec

  • P809
  • Person
  • 1879-1961

Alec was born in 1879 in Glasgow into a poor family living in a two-roomed tenement. He left school aged 12 and served a 7 year apprenticeship in a woodcarving studio run by Miss C P Anstruther, (Mrs Mackay), qualifying as a journeyman in 1898. From about 1895 until 1902 he attended drawing and art classes at evenings and weekends, mostly at the Glasgow School of Art.

In 1902, at the suggestion of Mrs Mackay, he applied for a position in the Guild of Handicraft run by CR Ashbee and joined it as it moved from Whitechapel to Chipping Campden. Here he began to do a great deal of ecclesiastical work resulting from Ashbee's work as an Architect' as well as other work, including modelling figures for casting by the silversmiths. After the Guild closed in 1908 he took over the Guild carving workshop and ran it as an independent business until he emigrated in 1939.

During the Guild years and after he also developed his skills as a stone carver and did much stone work both for churches and secular commissions. In all his work he carved directly into the material, he did not work from modelled figures, a method of working which had been out of favour and which he was one of the first to employ at the beginning of the new century. From about 1912 he began to carve portrait heads and busts in wood and near the end of his life he believed he had made over 600 in England and America.

He was nominated for the Slade Professorship in 1921, but was not successful. However, by this time he was developing an additional career in lecturing - not merely on art/sculpture related subjects, becoming sought after on both sides of the Atlantic. He made a number of lecture/work tours to the US between the wars.
He emigrated to America in 1939 and eventually settled in California.

After the end of the War he wrote two books, one technical and the other a history of sculpture which expressed the ideas and feelings he had developed during his working life for his work. He had been appointed by Ashbee as his literary executor, and also wrote a history of the Guild of Handicraft at Ashbee's request.

He died in England during what he knew would be his last visit and is buried in the churchyard at St Nicolas at Wade in Kent - the church in which he had been married in 1909.
Apart from many churches and homes, there are examples of his work in the Guild of Handicraft Museum in Chipping Campden, The Museum and Art Gallery in Cheltenham,' The Glasgow Museum, The National Portrait Gallery. There is also a large archive of pictures and letters in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Milligan, Thomas R

  • P900
  • Person
  • fl 1885-1890

Thomas R Milligan was a teacher who studied at the GSA from 1885 to 1890, gaining his Full Art Class Teacher’s Certificate in 1887 and his Art Master’s Certificate Group 1, stage 1c the following year. By 1890 he was completing his Art Master’s Certificate, Group 1 stage 14-22c, flowers and design, having won the 3rd grade prize in the subject in the National competition the previous year.

Throughout his Art School career, Milligan’s address was 22 Arlington Street, Glasgow. In the PO Directory of 1887, he is described as an artist and teacher of Drawing and Painting.

Morris, Talwin

  • P902
  • Person
  • 1865 - 1911

Born in 1865 in Winchester, he was raised by his Aunt following the death of his parents. Initially destined for the Church, Morris left Lancing College and became articled to his uncle’s architectural practice in Reading, later moving to the offices of Martin Brookes in London. As he became more interested in the decorative arts, he was inspired by William Morris and the flourishing Arts and Crafts movement, particularly by the graphics. At the age of twenty-six he was a sub editor on the weekly Black and White journal published by Cassell and Company.

In 1892 he married his second cousin, Alice Marsh, a talented writer of children’s books, and he became art director for the Glasgow publishing firm Blackie & Son in the following year. He became a friend and patron to ‘the four,’ Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Herbert McNair, and the sisters Frances and Margaret MacDonald, and introduced Mackintosh to Walter Blackie, who went on to commission the Hill House.

Morris played a major role in promoting the Glasgow Style through his designs and commissions for book covers for popular titles which were aimed at the mass market. His own designs included architectural frames, geometric abstraction, spare lettering, whiplash lines and stylized flowers and birds - all Glasgow Style motifs.
Morris also developed a distinctive and elegant style of lettering. In addition to book covers, he produced designs for page layout, endpapers and title-pages and his design work extended to textiles, interior design and brass metalwork – including some for his home, Dunglass Castle.

Dogged by ill health, he retired in 1909 and died from a cardiac embolism at the age of forty five.

Moyes, Alexander

  • P903
  • Person
  • fl 1883-1885

Alexander Moyes was a joiner who studied as an evening student at the GSA from 1883 to 1886. He lived at 19 Clarendon Street in Partick.

Murgatroyd, Eugenie Winifred

  • P904
  • Person
  • 1899-1966

Born in Glasgow at 20 Doune Terrace, Kelvinside North, her father was a Factor and property valuer. Murgatroyd attended Glasgow High School for Girls where she won the Newbury Medal (Dux in Art) in 1919. Later that year she enrolled at the GSA where she studied Drawing and Painting until 1923.

In 1928, she married a fellow GSA student, Thomas Gentleman and had two sons – David, born 1930 and Hugo, born 1935. A talented needlewoman, in later years, she developed a keen interest, and skill, in weaving, producing a variety of textiles including tweeds, cottons and fine wool stoles. She sold these through a local shop, via commission and also regularly helped at a summer residential course on weaving held for the teachers of blind people in Cambridge.

Several members of the Gentleman family went on to pursue successful artistic careers.

Muthesius, Hermann

  • P905
  • Person
  • 1861-1927

The son of a builder, Muthesius spent two years studying Philosophy and Art History at the University of Berlin before enrolling at Charlottenberg Technical College in 1883 to study Architecture. After completing his studies, he spent several years working for the German construction firm Ende & Böckmann in Tokyo. He later worked for the Prussian Ministry of Public Works, and spent two years as an editor of official construction journals.

In 1896 Muthesius was engaged as cultural attaché to the German Embassy in London which gave him the opportunity to study the ways of the British, looking in particular at residential architecture and domestic lifestyle and design. In 1904 "Das englische Haus" ("The English House"), his most famous work, was published. During his research, he regularly visited Glasgow to look at the innovative work of the Glasgow School, exemplified by the designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and he became friends with the architect and his circle. Hermanns wife, Anna Muthesius (1879-1961), wrote about reforming womens dress and her ideas contributed to the artistic dress movement. Her book, "Das Eigenkleid der Frau" (Women's Own Dress), 1903, had a cover designed by Frances MacDonald.

The GSA Archive holds correspondence between Muthesius and Francis H. Newbery, Director of Glasgow School of Art, 1885-1918.

Paterson, Oscar

  • P906
  • Person
  • 1863-1934

Born in the Gorbals, Paterson trained at Gresham College in London, returning to Glasgow and opening a studio in West Regent Street in 1889 where he taught glass technology and produced some of the best domestic and ecclesiastical stained glass of the time. His most admired works include the Argyll Window in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh and the Sea Battle window for the Hatrack building on St Vincent Street, Glasgow. .

Unusually he also produced stained glass for the great liners including the ill-fated Lusitania, and his studio produced a large amount of glass for the Pacific and Orient Shipping Company and the Cunard Line. During the 1920s the studio was kept going by a commission to produce a complete scheme of stained glass for St Magnus Cathedral.

At his peak Oscar Paterson was the most significant stained glass artist in Britain after Edward Burne Jones and received much more public and critical acclaim that any other Glasgow glass artist.

Perman, Louise Ellen M

  • P907
  • Person
  • 1854-1921

The daughter of a Corn Merchant, Perman studied at GSA from 1881 to 1890.

In 1911 she married fellow artist, James Torrence and they moved to live in Helensburgh, Strathclyde. Perman worked mainly in oil, but some watercolours survive. She is most renowned for her paintings of flowers, especially irises. Between 1885 and 1920, she exhibited 28 floral oil paintings at the RSA.

She is known to have held several exhibitions with Jessie King, Anne Muir and Jessie Algie.

Pevsner, Nikolaus Bernhard Leon

  • P908
  • Person
  • 1902-1983

Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner CBE FBA was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951–74).

Between 21 November 1938 and 3 May 1939, Pevsner exchanged a series of letters about a lecture at GSA and the work of C R Mackintosh and George Walton with William Oliphant Hutchison, Director of the GSA from 1933 to 1943 - GSAA/DIR/9/32

Pollock, John

  • P909
  • Person
  • fl 1874-1888

Pollock first appears in the GSA registers in 1874 where he is recorded as gaining a second class certificate in the Local Science examination. He enrolled again in 1987 giving his home address as 9 Wellmeadow, Paisley and recording his occupation as ‘teacher’.

Pugh, Martyn

  • P998
  • Person
  • fl 1976-

Graduated with an MA in Silversmithing in 1976 from Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University) and set up his own studio in Worcestershire in the same year. He now lives and works in Redditch. Pugh has won numerous awards and exhibited widely. He has works in many important collections including the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, 10 Downing Street and Sheffield City Council.

Purdie, Robina Spence McDougal

  • P910
  • Person
  • 1895-

Born in 1895, Purdie was awarded a P Wylie Davidson medal (bronze) in 1915 for metalwork and was also marked ‘excellent’ in her certificate for Art Needlework awarded in the same session. She took classes in Drawing & Painting as a day student and recorded her address as Herbertfield, Hamilton West. Two silver spoons made by her have been identified in private collections

Purvis, Thomas Charles

  • P911
  • Person
  • 1888-1956

Tom Purvis was born in Bristol in 1888, the son of the sailor and marine artist, T.G. Purvis (1861-1933). After leaving school he attended Camberwell College of Art in London for three and a half years, where he studied under Sickert. He fought in the First World War in the Artists Rifles

Purvis started out by working for the advertising agency Mather and Crowther, going on to master the art of lithographic printing, which would define much of his poster work.
Purvis became known as one of the most important English poster artists of his day, recognisable for his simplified, symbolic, two-dimensional and colourful style of printing. He is probably best known for his work for the LNER for whom he produced over 100 posters from 1923-1945, and for his work with Austin Reed. He went on to create posters and magazine/newspaper advertisements for many other companies including: Aquascutum, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Bovril, Colgate, and Shell. During the Second World War Purvis was also an official poster artist for the Ministry of Supply.

Throughout his career Purvis lobbied for the professionalisation of commercial art. He publicised his views concerning what he perceived as a lack of practical training for commercial artists through articles and lectures. In 1930 Purvis joined the Society of Industrial Artists and in 1936 he became one of the first designers to be made a Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts. During the 1930s and 1940s he was Consulting Adviser to the Commercial Art Section at the GSA.

In his later years (c.1950s) Purvis converted to Catholicism and focussed on religious paintings.

Archive held at the Purvis Archive, National Railway Museum Archive

Saarelainen, Heta Rinna

  • P995
  • Person
  • 1974-

Finnish visual artist living in Naantali. He graduated from Turku School of Drawing in 1999, majoring in painting. He specialises in large-scale acrylic paintings where colour plays a central role. Saarelianen has held solo exhibitions in the Turku Art Museum and the Waino Aaltonen Museum and participated in joint exhibitions in Finland, Russia and Mozambique. He is a member of the Finnish Association of Artists

Sandeman, Margot

  • S568
  • Person
  • 1922-2009

Margot Sandeman was born in Glasgow, the daughter of embroiderer Muriel Boyd and self-taught watercolourist Archibald Sandeman. Her mother, whose work became internationally known, had studied at Glasgow School of Art under Jessie Newbery

Margot followed her mother to GSA where she was quickly singled out, along with Joan Eardley, by Hugh Adam Crawford, head of drawing and painting, for an experiment in which a very small number of outstanding students in that 1939 session were selected for special attention. This effectively amounted to a three-year course in two years, with Crawford himself as tutor. Sandeman and Eardley, who were life-long friends, lived not far from each other in Bearsden, and frequently drew and painted together in the Campsies, and later at Corrie on Arran.

Graduating in 1942, Sandeman was sent on wartime work to Bletchley Park until she was granted compassionate leave to look after her sick mother. In 1946 she married the potter and ceramicist James Robson, an art-school contemporary. The couple purchased the Bothy, a small house in High Corrie, Arran, as a place to spend the summer with their two sons. The island became her second home, to which she returned at least annually.

In 1970 she won the Guthrie Award of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Redpath Award from the Society of Scottish Artists and a Scottish Arts Council prize, going on in 1989 to be Scottish winner in the Laing Competition. The Arran landscape was a constant inspiration for her paintings. She also collaborated with her old friend and Art School contemporary Ian Hamilton Finlay on his texts, creating a parallel series of still-lifes plus illustrations for his "concrete poetry". Another project saw her produce a suite of paintings to accompany a celebration of the life of dramatist and poet Robert McLellan, a neighbour in High Corrie.

The critic Cordelia Oliver was among many admirers, stating, "among Scottish painters of her own time, there is no other whose work reveals such a combination of deep-rootedness in a given place with an equally strong sense of mind set free to soar into a world of visual poetry".

Saville, Jenny

  • P913
  • Person
  • 1970-

Attracted to Glasgow by the growing reputation of recent graduates such as Steven Campbell and Ken Currie, and the emphasis on traditional skills in the fine arts course, Saville studied at the GSA from 1988-1992. During her time at the School, she won a one-term scholarship to Cincinnati, USA, where she took a course that focussed on women in art and society.

On graduating, her work attracted the attention of the art collector Charles Saatchi, who supported her while she created new works for his 1994 exhibition, “Young British Artists III.” This show, and the RA’s1997 “Sensation” exhibition of work by Young British Artists brought critical acclaim and public recognition.

Best known for her large-scale oil paintings of fleshy, obese female figures painted in an unflinching manner, Saville is now regarded as one of the foremost painters of her generation. She lectured at The Slade School of Fine Arts, London between 2000 – 2006 and was elected an RA in 2007.

Scouller, Glen

  • P817
  • Person
  • 1950-

Glen Scouller RSW RGI was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1968 to 1973. He now lives and works in Ayrshire and draws inspiration for his landscapes and still life from there and from the south of France, where he is a frequent visitor. Known for his love of colour and light and strong bold approach, Scouller's work is based on direct observation from nature, painting en plein air and developing larger works in the studio.

Elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (RSW) in 1997 and the Royal Glasgow Institute (RGI) in 1989 he has also won awards for his work in both oil and watercolour and is included in numerous corporate and public collections worldwide.

AWARDS

1972 R.S.A. Painting Award

1973 Post Graduate Study Award

1973 W.O. Hutcheson Prize for Drawing

1973 Travelling Scholarship, Greece

1987 Lauder Award, Glasgow Art Club
Scottish Amicable Award, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts

1989 Elected member of The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts

1997 Elected member of The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour

2006 David Cargill Award, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts

2008 Residency, L’Association Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Collioure

2013 Crinan Residency Award, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts

Shirreffs, William

  • P914
  • Person
  • 1846-1902

Born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Shirreffs attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1871 – 75 where he studied sculpture under William Mossman the younger. In 1871 he won the Queens Prize in the annual National Exhibition of art-school student work for a design for a wall panel, and the Plasterer’s Company prize for a panel modelled in plaster. The following year, 1872, he was awarded a free scholarship.

After graduating, he opened a studio in 1877 at 108 West Regent Street, and established a cire-perdue foundry, the first of its kind in the West of Scotland, with his brother, Charles Gordon Shirreffs (1857-1913), who was a brass-founder. Shirreffs worked closely with the architect J J Burnet on several projects, such as the Glasgow Savings Bank at 177 Ingram Street, Glasgow. He also collaborated with other sculptors, notably Sir George Frampton, for whom he supervised the carving of the reliefs and sculpture on the North Entrance of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. He exhibited at the RGIFA, the RA and International Exhibition held in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park, in 1888.

Shirreffs was buried in Glasgow's Western Necropolis, where his family monument, erected in 1905, features a large, bronze Cherub head possibly of his own design.

Slaney, Margery Noel

  • P915
  • Person
  • 1915-2000

Margery Noel Slaney, known as Noel Slaney, enrolled at the GSA in 1933 and gained her Diploma, with distinction, in 1937. Following a further two years post Diploma study, in 1939, she was awarded one of the last Haldane Travelling Scholarships before the start of WW2.

Throughout her GSA career, her address was 182 Kings Park Avenue, Glasgow. She married fellow artist, George F Moules in 1940 and later went on to teach art at Hillhead High School, Glasgow.

She was a member of the RSW, SSA, SSWA and exhibited at the Royal Academy. She was known as a painter of every-day life, particularly interior scenes. Examples of her work can be found in Glasgow Museums, and the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow.

Smith, George

  • P916
  • Person
  • fl 1949-1959

George Smith first appears in Glasgow School of Art Student Registers in session 1949-50. The last mention of him is in 1959. His address is given throughout as 3, Greenock Avenue, Cathcart, and his occupation as “Cost Accountant”.

His date of birth is listed as 26 September 1907.Given his age and the length of time that was spend studying at the School, it is likely that he was a part time student, perhaps attending evening classes or on a Saturday morning.

Spencer, Gilbert

  • P917
  • Person
  • 1892-1979

The younger brother of Stanley Spencer, Gilbert studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art (wood carving) from 1911–12. He then followed Stanley to the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 1913, leaving in 1915. During the First World War he served in the Medical Corps and was drafted to the Macedonian front. He returned to complete his studies at the Slade in 1919.

From 1932 to 1948 Gilbert Spencer was Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art in London. In 1948 he was appointed Head of the Department of Painting at Glasgow School of Art by Douglas Percy Bliss, and stayed for two years. In 1950, he returned to his alma mater to become Head of Painting at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, from where he retired in 1957.

Spencer painted portraits, genre scenes and murals but was primarily a landscape painter. He served as a war artist during the Second World War and was made an RA in 1959. Examples of his work are held in many public collections including the Tate Gallery and the RA.

Stephenson, Carolyn

  • P988
  • Person
  • fl c2000

Trained at London College of Fashion and Central School of Art . BA Hons in Jewellery Manufacture and Design

Swanson, Margaret

  • P918
  • Person
  • 1872-1942

Margaret Swanson was a former primary school teacher from Ayrshire who worked as Ann Macbeth’s assistant at Glasgow School of Art’s Needlework & Embroidery department between 1910 and 1913. Together, Macbeth and Swanson wrote “Educational Needlework” (1911) a practical manual of needlework skills with hand drawn diagrams to illustrate the techniques being taught. This complimented the teacher training course they developed introducing a carefully graded syllabus of needlework instruction for children from the age of six upwards.

Swanson went on to write two further teaching manuals, “Needlecraft in the School” in 1916 and “Needlecraft for Older Girls” in 1920.

Taffner, Eleanor Bolta

  • P919
  • Person
  • 1931-2010

Eleanor Bolta Taffner and her husband Donald Taffner (1930-2011) co-founded D L Taffner in the early 1970s as a TV programme distribution company. Later re-named DLT Entertainment, the company expanded into TV and stage production, specialising in taking UK TV formats and repackaging them as hits for the USA.

Enthusiastic art collectors, their interest in the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh was encouraged by Professor Tony Jones, then Director of the GSA, and they built a significant collection of works by Mackintosh and his circle. The Taffners also became major supporters of the Art School. In 1986, they created and funded the post of Taffner Mackintosh Curator at the GSA, and ten years later, supported Glasgow Museums’ Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibition tour of USA Art Museums.

In 2003, Eleanor was appointed Honorary Vice President of the Glasgow School of Art in recognition of her continued support to the school. Eleanor and Donald were presented with a Wallace award at the 'Icons of Scotland Dinner' hosted by Scotland Magazine in 2005, and were the first individuals with no hereditary connection to Scotland to ever receive the award. Eleanor Taffner received an honorary MBE in 2005

Taylor, James

  • P920
  • Person
  • 1890-

Taylor enrolled at the GSA between 1907 and 1913, where he studied architecture under Eugene Bourdon. Throughout his time at the School, his home address was 242 Crown Street, Glasgow, with his occupation listed as Architect’s apprentice until 1912-13, when he describes himself as an Architectural Draughtsman.
In 1909 he won a Haldane bursary and a Glasgow Institute of Architects prize of three pounds three shillings.

Taylor, John

  • P921
  • Person
  • 1856-1934

The son of an upholsterer, John Taylor was born in Ayr in 1856. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to an upholsterer in London, where he also attended night school classes. He returned to Ayr and took over the family upholstery business following the death of his father, but by 1900 he was living with his wife and family in Glasgow where he was described as a warehouseman upholsterer, possibly working for Wylie & Lochhead.

Taylor was a correspondent for “The Studio” and “The Furniture Record” from about 1898 to 1934, and also contributed to other publications, such as the American periodical, “House Beautiful.” From 1921 he had a business at 12 Renfield Street as a "Manufacturers Agent" for American furniture makers and furnishing supplies, probably including Fabrikona, a fashionable textile-like wall covering, which he regularly praised in his “Furniture Record” articles. He wrote two books on Interior decoration in partnership with John Ednie, the architect and designer; it is likely the men met while working for Wylie & Lochhead.

A member of the Glasgow Business Club from 1921 to 1934, Taylor latterly served as its President. He was a Glasgow City Councillor for Maryhill, his home district, and attempted to become the local MP. From 1899 to 1925, he lived at 150 Cambridge Drive, Maryhill, later moving to 150 Fergus Drive. He was also a magistrate and served as a Governor of the GSA

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