Series DC 098/2/1 - Photographs of artworks

George Baltus was a Belgian artist and lecturer born in 1874. Baltus married Sivia von Hildebrand, the daughter of the German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand, in 1904. He began his relationship with the School as an occasional visiting lecturer around 1906. He gave talks to the students on subjects such as composition and the history of art in major cities such as Florence. He was recruited as a permanent member of staff in 1908 and his lecture series developed to include techniques and processes. He released a book during his time at the School called The Technics Of Painting. Baltus returned to Belgium on the outbreak of the First World War where he stayed in active resistance to the German invasion and didn’t return to Glasgow. In 1920, Baltus was appointed professor at the Academy, a position he kept till he left in 1925 for the Acadlmey of Elsene (Ixelles/Brussels). He stayed involved in Leuven affairs as general inspector for art schools in the Belgian Flemish Region. If you have any additional information please get in touch.

Resources used: Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide: a journal of nineteenth-century visual culture, The Influence of Theosophy on Belgian Artists, Between Symbolism and the Avant-Garde (1890-1910), The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections, The Glasgow School of Art Prospectuses, The Flower and the Green Leaf: Glasgow school of Art in the time of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, edited by Ray McKenzie, The Glasgow School of Art: the history, by Hugh Ferguson, The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections, Records of The Glasgow School of Art, 15th century-2014. Additional information provided by a private researcher.