Garrow, Jessie I

Person

Garrow, Jessie I

1899-1993

Garrow, Jessie Isabel (1899 – 1993) Born on 15 April 1899, Jessie was the daughter of Robert (born 1867), described in the 1901 census as a stationer, and his wife Grace. Throughout Jessie's time at the GSoA, the family lived at 17 Montgommery Road in Newlands and, according to the electoral roll, this continued to be Jessies home until the 1930s. Jessie's paternal grandfather, also Robert Garrow, was partner and then successor to Sir James Lumsden, founder of James Lumsden and Sons, book publishers and wholesale stationers in Glasgow. Lumsden and Sons were best known for their short runs of high quality childrens books, which often included striking illustrations, and examples can be seen in the University of Glasgow library. An uncle, James Ranken Garrow (1870 – 1937) attended GSoA after early education at the Glasgow High School. According to his son, James Ranken was advised by his father to turn to science as this offered better job prospects, but James continued to follow his interest in art at evening classes and became a gifted glass artist, producing' lamp blown glass' items in his spare time while enjoying a successful career as an industrial chemist and scientific instrument maker. In a hand-written biography produced by his son (GSoA archive ref: ???) James Ranken (or Rankeen) is said to have produced glass for College Principal Fra Newberry for permanent exhibition in the Arts and Craft room at GSoA, and supplied several 'artistic houses in London' with glasses. Mrs G F Watts, wife of the artist, owned some of his pieces and examples of his work can be found in the V&A in London. Jessie Isabel Garrow first enrolled at GSoA in 1916 as a day student in the Drawing and Painting section and the student register notes that she also took courses in Lettering and Fashion. She was obviously a gifted student as the Prospectus for 1917-18 records that she had obtained a private commission the previous year. She gained a Diploma in Drawing and painting in 1819 and then went on to achieve an endorsement to her Diploma in 1920, this award given to, "students who have successfully completed a course of Post-Diploma study and have obtained a sufficiently high standard therein to justify this endorsement." After four years as a day student, she signed up for afternoon classes in 1920-21 and took a Life Drawing class. Missing from the registers the following year, she enrolled again for the 1922-23 session as an evening student following classes in Drawing and Painting and etching. Two of Jessie's drawings appear in early editions of 'The Palette', a GSoA annual which included articles by staff and students and plates of their works. In Volume one of the Palette (1919, GSAA/PUB/6), a drawing by Jessie of 'Delilah and the Philistines' appears on page 14, while on page 44 there is a plate of a 'Wood block print' by fellow student Ian Cheyne (1895 – 1955), who would later become her husband. Jessie regularly exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute for Fine Arts between 1919 and 1925, mainly showing watercolours, and also at the RSA as Jean Isabel Garrow. She is known to have produced illustrations for Blackie the publisher and was one of the illustrators for "The Ringdove Story Book" published by Blackie and Son in 1927. In 1935, along with her husband Ian Cheyne, she returned to GSoA as a" Visitor / Examiner External Assesor (Commercial Art)". Very little of her work seems to have survived and she is probably best known for "The Wave" a stylish coloured woodcut now known through a contemporary illustration in 'The Studio' (1924). . College registers; ancestory.com; haji-b.blogspot.co.uk;RGIFA catalogues

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