A Long Day at Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum.

Kelvingrove is one of many Glasgow museums all run by the city.  One thing I've learned is that the city's collection is interchangeable and can move from one museum to another.  An example of this is the Dali panting I mentioned yesterday (we'll get to that later).  My plan was to try to get to two museums today, but Kelvingrove was so big and had so much that it wore me out.

I rode the Glasgow Subway for the first time today.  The trains go in one big oval, one clockwise, the other counterclockwise.  They are the inner and outer loops.  I managed to get off too early, but the walk wasn't too far.  It was a little colder today than it has been, so I was glad to get inside.

I grabbed myself a map of the museum and figured out where everything was that I really wanted to see.  First to the Macintosh stuff

A lot of emphasis is put on the contributions of Charles Rennie, but this is a work of his wife's Margaret Macdonald Macintosh called The May Queen.  Before becoming a panel hanging on the wall of Miss Cranston's Tea Room, it was exhibited in Vienna where it influenced Gustav Klimt (theory is that it specifically influenced his Beethoven Mural).  

These are two Charles Rennie Macintosh original chairs.  The first was commissioned for a study in a private home, the second for one of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms.

There was also a good collection of works by the Glasgow Boys as well.  Unfortunately, I did not write down who did this piece, but it reminds me of the Maria robot in the Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

They had a decent collection of French Impressionists, including the required Monet...but not one of his best.  Strangely enough, this lovely Van Gogh was included in that collection.  It is not a self-portrait, but a portrait of Alexander Reid.  Although Van Gogh painted many of his works in France, and was greatly influenced by the French Impressionists...I think the Dutch would have something to say about classifying him as French.  Just sayin'

Any for my Pre-Raphaelite friends...

Burne-Jones' Danae or The Tower of Brass.   If that's not enough

How about his Angel?  Sorry these are all at an angle, but they're all behind glass and I wanted to avoid a glare.

I, of course, had not yet seen what I had come to see.  Everyone's favorite...

Salvadore Dali's Christ of St. John of the Cross.  This will always be one of my all time favorite works of art.  It was once vandalized because it was very controversial and seen as blasphemous.  There is a very interesting documentary on the restoration on Youtube



This was not just an art museum, but a history museum as well.

They had a really cool exhibit of armor 

As well as many historical exhibits of both Glasgow and all of Scotland.  This is a nifty yachting trophy.

The museum itself was interesting as well

It boasted a great pipe organ and I was there for the daily performance.  It was a lot of fun listening to it while touring the exhibits.

After I walked the whole blessed place, I checked out the gift shops.  They did not have a poster of the painting I wanted to bring home. George Henry and E A Hornel's The Druids - Bringing in the Mistletoe but they only had it in framed prints...which I am not bringing home on the plane.

I went to the cafe and treated myself to tea, which was....eh...  I'll go to the Willow Tea Room tomorrow.

On the way out, I found an old friend

This is another piece that has migrated museums.  When I was working at Borders in Glasgow, it was at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art and you could see it through one of the store's windows.  I was wondering what happened to him as I didn't see him in the GoMA when I was there a couple of days ago. 

I got back on the Subway and got off at the right stop without incident.  I stopped in at the VERY posh Frazier's department store on the way back just for the fun of it.  Didn't have time to visit the People's Palace like I'd hoped.  I think I'll survive not visiting Billy Connolly's Banana Boots.