Glasgow Boys

Glasgow Boys. A loose association of Scottish artists active from about 1880 to the turn of the century; there was no formal membership or programme, but the artists involved were linked by a desire to move away from the conservative and parochial values they thought were represented by the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. Several of them had worked in France and were proponents of open-air painting. David and Francina Irwin write that they ‘sought their inspiration in the freshness and tranquillity of pastoral scenes or remained indoors to paint studio portraits. Only occasionally … is there an indication that they are associated with Glasgow at all’ (Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad 1700–1900, 1975). The Scottish Arts Review, founded in 1888, acted as their mouthpiece. William York Macgregor is sometimes referred to as the ‘father’ of the group; he was a few years older than most of the others and ran a life class in his Glasgow studio in which many of them used to meet. The heyday of the group was over by 1900 and it did not survive the First World War, but it rejuvenated Scottish art, breaking ground where the Scottish Colourists were soon to follow.

The membership of the group is not clearcut, but according to its last survivor, Robert Macaulay Stevenson, the following twenty-three artists (all painters, although Macgillivray was mainly a sculptor) should be considered Glasgow Boys: Sir D. Y. Cameron; James Elder Christie (1847–1914); Joseph Crawhall (1861–1913); Thomas Millie Dow (1848–1919); David Gauld (1865–1936); Sir James Guthrie; James Whitelaw Hamilton (1860–1932); George Henry (1858–1943); Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933); William Kennedy (1859–1918); Sir John Lavery; James Pittendrigh Macgillivray (1856–1938); William York Macgregor (1855–1923); Harrington Mann (1864–1937); Arthur Melville (1855–1904); Thomas Corsan Morton (1859–1928); Stuart Park (1862–1933); James Paterson (1854–1932); Sir George Pirie (1864–1946); Alexander Roche (1861–1921); Robert Macaulay Stevenson (1856–1952); Grosvenor Thomas (1856–1923); and Edward Arthur Walton (1860–1922). See also GLASGOW SCHOOL.