The Glasgow Boys in North Africa
The lure of North Africa for three 19th century Scottish artists.
Like other European and American avant-garde artists, the Glasgow Boys had a consuming interest in the mastering of light and colour. At first, the group’s work explored Realism and Naturalism as developed by French and Dutch artists. By the late 1880s, the Glasgow Boys were moving towards a more decorative approach. They began weaving their colours and brushwork in a manner almost flirting with abstract effects at times, influenced by Celtic design, the flattened forms of Japanse prints and—the subject of this lecture— the colour and exoticism of North Africa. The smell, sounds and brilliant light of the Moroccan people and animals, the dazzling white buildings and blue seas of Tangiers are reflected through the paintings of Arthur Melville, Joseph Crawhall and John Lavery.
Professor Frances Fowle is Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland and Chair of Nineteenth Century Art at TheUniversity of Edinburgh. She is the author of Van Gogh’s Twin: The Scottish Art Dealer Alexander Bell and has curated numerous international exhibitions including Van Gogh in Britain:Pioneer Collectors in 2006. She was the 2002 Van Gogh Museum Visiting Fellow and is on the advisory board of the Van Gogh Worldwide Project, a digital platform for all works by Van Gogh.