Item GSAA/DIR/9/109 - Scrapbook Album presented to William Hutchison

The Glasgow School of Art has its origins in the Glasgow Government School of Design, which was established on 6 January 1845. The Glasgow Government School of Design was one of twenty similar institutions established in the United Kingdom's manufacturing centres between 1837 and 1851. Set up as a consequence of the evidence given to the House of Commons Select Committee on Arts and their connection with Manufactures of 1835-1836, the Government Schools hoped to improve the quality of the country's product design through a system of education that provided training in design for industry. Somerset House was the first of such schools to be established, opening in 1837, and others followed throughout the provinces.

In 1853 the Glasgow Government School of Design changed its name to the Glasgow School of Art. Following the receipt of some funding from the Haldane Academy Trust, (a trust set up by James Haldane, a Glasgow engraver, in 1833), The Glasgow School of Art was required to incorporate the name of the trust into its title. Consequently, it became the Glasgow School of Art and Haldane Academy, although by 1891 the "Haldane Academy" was dropped from the title. Glasgow School of Art was incorporated in 1892. In 1901 the Glasgow School of Art was designated a Central Institution for Higher Art Education in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

Initially the School was located at 12 Ingram Street, Glasgow, but in 1869, it moved to the Corporation Buildings on Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. In 1897 work started on a new building to house the School of Art on Renfrew Street, Glasgow. The building was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, former pupil of The Glasgow School of Art. The first half of the building was completed in 1899 and the second in 1909.

The Government Schools ran courses in elementary drawing, shading from the flat, shading from casts, chiaroscuro painting, colouring, figure drawing from the flat, figure drawing from the round, painting the figure, geometrical drawing, perspective, modelling and design. All these courses were introduced from the start at the Glasgow School apart from that of design. The course in design was the "summit of the system" where students came up with original designs for actual manufactures or decorative purposes and it was not until 1849, when Charles Heath Wilson became headmaster, that classes in design began to be taught. Also in this year Bruce Bell was engaged to teach mechanical and architectural drawing.

After 1853 the above pattern of courses was extended to 26 stages which formed the national curriculum for art schools. This system was known as the South Kensington system. An Art Masters could be awarded by gaining certificates in the available subjects. There was no restriction on entry and students could take as long as they wished to accumulate their passes before being awarded their Art Masters.

In 1901 the Glasgow School of Art was given the power to award its own diplomas. In the same year Art 91D classes for day school teachers commenced which were later known as the Art 55 classes. From 1901 to 1979 the School of Art awarded its own diplomas and thereafter it awarded degrees of the Council for National Academic Awards. In the 1970s the School of Fine Art and the School of Design were established. With the demise of the Council for National Academic Awards, from 1993 Glasgow University awarded the School's degrees in fine art and design.
In 1885 the Glasgow School of Art taught architecture and building construction conforming to the South Kensington system. Following on from the designation of the School as a Central Institution and the empowerment of the School to award its own diplomas, the School and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College worked together to produce a curriculum for a new course leading to a joint diploma.

In 1903 the joint Glasgow School of Architecture was established within the Glasgow School of Art in conjunction with the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. For the new diploma design classes were to be taught at the School of Art and the construction classes at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. The first diplomas in architecture were awarded in 1910.

In 1924 the Glasgow School of Art became a university teaching institution when the University of Glasgow set up a BSc in Architecture which was to be taught at the School of Architecture. In 1964 the Royal College of Science and Technology (formerly the Royal Technical College, formerly the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College) merged with the Scottish College of Commerce to form the new University of Strathclyde. Following the merger the Glasgow School of Architecture came to an end, the last students transferring to Strathclyde degrees and graduating in 1968.

In 1970 the Mackintosh School of Architecture was established. It is housed within the Glasgow School of Art and forms that school's Department of Architecture. Its degrees are accredited by the University of Glasgow and its Head is the University's Professor of Architecture.

The Glasgow Government School of Design was originally managed, as were the other Government Schools, by the Board of Trade and a Committee of Management representing local subscribers. Then, in 1852, the Government Schools of Design were taken over by the Department of Practical Art. This Department was renamed the Department of Science and Art in 1853 and was located in South Kensington, London. The Committee of Management was replaced in 1892 by the Board of Governors. In 1898, control of the School was transferred again, this time to the Scotch Education Department (renamed the Scottish Education Department in 1918).

The School became academically independent in 1901 when it was free to develop its own curriculum and its own diplomas, subject to the approval of the Scottish Education Department. The chief executive of the School was the Headmaster, renamed Director in 1901, and a Secretary and Treasurer was responsible for all aspects of the administration of the School. As the School grew, other administrative posts were added.

Born in Glasgow, 4th Apr 1873, the son of John Wilson, a lithographer. Died Islay on 8 or 9 Jan 1950. Educated at a private seminary before transferring to Gorbals Public School. Held a business appointment with the firm of Messrs. John Blair & Co., Howard St. before starting at GSA, 1892-3 and then 1899-1906, under the Belgian Symbolist, Jean Delville.
Joined the staff in 1903 as a teaching assistant under Jean Delville, won the Haldane Scholarship and travelled in 1905 to France, Italy, Belgium and London. Returned to GSA and gradually worked his way up to Asst. Professor under Maurice Greiffenhagen, the subsequent Head of Drawing and Painting. On Greiffenhagen’s retirement in 1928 Wilson managed the department while the then Director of the School, John D. Revel, acted as Head. When Revel left the School in 1932, Wilson was formally acknowledged as Head of the Department, a post he held until 1938.
Specialised in portraits and large decorative panels and was commissioned to paint one of a series of large decorative panels in the banqueting hall of the Glasgow Municipal Buildings. He also painted landscapes and figures. Lived in Milngavie most of his life, later moving to Glasgow and then Ayr.
Wilson exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute from 1895-1950. From the RGI catalogues it was discovered that "The Wind" was exhibited there in 1919 (number 342 in the catalogue and priced £300). This is probably the first time it was on public show and at a fairly high price compared to Forrester’s other paintings. In the mid-twenties Wilson exhibited a succession of paintings with titles such as "The Song", "The Echo" and so on.
"The Wind" is illustrated in Vol. 5 of the Sotheby's catalogue for the sale of Warhol's estate, held April 29-30 1988. The work was listed as catalogue #2812 with a sales estimate of $10-15,000. It was supposedly one of Andy Warhol’s favourite paintings and this connection has meant that the painting was valued at £250,000 in the 1990s. Warhol also had several other Wilson paintings.

Jessie Alexandra Dick, later known as Alix Dick, started at Glasgow School of Art in 1914 as a Drawing and Painting day student. She was born on 13 July 1896.
Her address at that time was Netherhall in Largs and she received a £6 bursary from the Ayrshire S.E.C., an education board.
She continued as a Drawing and Painting day student for the subsequent three years.
In January 1915 she helped with Stall 5 in the Belgian Market, part of the Belgium Tryst at The Glasgow School of Art. This was a two-day event with exhibitions, music and shows, organised by students to raise funds for Belgians suffering from the impact of the First World War. Read more about the Belgium Tryst on The Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections blog at http://www.gsaarchives.net/2017/04/gsa-first-world-war-fundraising-home-front-part-2.
In 1916-17 she received a Haldane day school bursary of £12 10 shillings. During this year she did two sessions of embroidery under Miss Ann MacBeth in 1916 and she was awarded the School Certificate for Needlecraft granted by the Governors with a grade of Excellent’. She was a member of the School of Art Club.
In 1917-18 she received a Haldane day school bursary of £12 10 shillings and support (sum unknown) from the Ayrshire S.E.C.
She received her Diploma in Drawing and Painting in 1917-18. During that year she was awarded a maintenance bursary of £50 and won the Life School monthly prize competition.
It appears that she intended to return the next year but her entry in the General Register is scored out and ‘resigned £50 bursary’ written in.
Alix Dick became a member of staff at The Glasgow School of Art, working here from 1922/23 until 1959/60.
While at GSA she served in the following capacities:

• 1922/23-1924/25: Assistant Professor (Drawing & Painting Dept) Landscape and figure composition, mural & decorative painting, portrait and costume model, painting antique and still life
• 1925/26 - 1929/30: Lecturer (Drawing & Painting Dept) Drawing, painting, composition
• 1930/31-1931/32: Drawing & Painting (School of Design) pictorial and commercial art
• 1932/33: Drawing & Painting (Lower School, general course) drawing, painting, composition
• 1933/34: Drawing & Painting (Lower School, general course) Still life painting, oil & watercolour
• 1934/35-1937/38: Drawing & Painting, still life painting, oil & watercolour
• 1938/39-1959/60: Drawing & Painting lecturer (Drawing & Painting Dept).

Between 1924 and 1976 she exhibited regularly with the Royal Scottish Academy, and, after her death, five paintings were shown in the 1977 Academy exhibition, lent by her executors.

David Donaldson was Painter and Limner to Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland.
Born David Abercrombie Donaldson at Chryston, Lanarkshire in 1916. He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1932–1937 and won the Director’s Prize in 1936. He was awarded the Glasgow School of Art Haldane Travelling Scholarship in 1937 and went abroad for the first time in his life to visit Paris and Florence. When Donaldson returned to Glasgow he undertook another year of study at Glasgow School of Art, the equivalent of a post-graduate year awarded to outstanding students on completion of their diploma.
The Empire Exhibition of 1938 was held in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park. Scotland’s schools of art were employed to decorate pavilions and Donaldson painted a large scale mural which did not survive the demolition of the exhibition. With the declaration of war in 1939 Donaldson was graded unfit for military service. He continued to teach his night-school classes but as staff from the art school went off to serve in the forces he graduated to teaching first and second year students. In 1941 he won the important Guthrie Award at the Royal Scottish Academy's annual exhibition. In 1942 he married Kathleen Boyd Maxwell (whom he later divorced) and in 1943 their son was born. Eventually, in 1944 he was appointed a full-time lecturer and a permanent member of staff at Glasgow School of Art.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1951 and a full Member in 1956. He was elected member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 1964 and appointed Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art in 1967. In the meantime he had married Marysia Mora-Szorc in 1948 and they had two daughters.
Donaldson was commissioned to paint the Queen in 1966. He was appointed Painter and Limner to Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland in 1977. Amongst his other notable subjects were Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and many prominent figures in Scottish public life.
David Donaldson died shortly after celebrating his 80th birthday in 1996. This was also the year in which he was awarded the City of Glasgow Lord Provost’s Award for the Visual Arts and his biography by W. Gordon Smith was published.

Studied at Edinburgh College of Art and exhibited with the Edinburgh Group from 1913. He was appointed Director of the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) from 1933–1943 and in later life became an accomplished portrait artist. In respect of his commitment to the school, Richmond was made Honorary President of the GSA in 1948–1949. He died in 1963.

Benno Schotz was born on the 28th of August 1891, to a family of watchmakers in Estonia. In 1911 he left his homeland to begin studying engineering in Darmstadt, Germany before emigrating to Glasgow, transferring to Royal Technical College where he gained an engineering diploma. From 1914 to 1923 he worked in the drawing office of John Brown and Company, a Clydebank shipbuilders, while attending evening classes in Sculpture, including Modelling and Stonemasonry, at The Glasgow School of Art from 1914-1921. During the 1914-15 session Schotz received a bursary from The City Educationall Endowments Board worth £3.

In 1920 he was elected President of the Society of Painters and Sculptors, Glasgow, and three years later he became a sculptor full time with his first solo exhibition held at Reid and Lefevre’s in 1926. Later he went on to teach at The Glasgow School of Art, becoming the Head of Sculpture in 1938-1962. He was also appointed Her Majesty's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland, 1938.

From 1917 until his death in 1984 Schotz exhibited widely, with work included on numerous occasions by The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and in The Royal Scottish Academy. In 1985, the year following his death, both institutions held memorial exhibitions. Details of specific works exhibited can be found in The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Art : A Dictionary of Exhibitors at the Annual Exhibitions of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Complied by Roger Billcliffe, Volume 4 (Q-Z), and in The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibitors 1826-1990: A Dictionary of Artists and their Work in the Annual Exhibitions of The Royal Scottish Academy, Volume IV (R-Z), available in The Glasgow School of Art Archives. Schotz spent most of his adult life in Glasgow, playing an active role in the City’s Jewish community. He passed away in 1984 and is buried in Jerusalem.

A variety of his sandstone sculptures adorn building and bridges across Glasgow, details and locations of which can be found in Sculpture in Glasgow: an illustrated handbook and Public Sculpture of Glasgow, both by Ray McKenzie, available in The Glasgow School of Art Archives.

The Glasgow School of Art student registration number for Benno Schotz:
1914-15 (74)

1916-17 (274)

1917-18 (277)

1918-19 (185)

1920-21 (1225)

Andrew Law attended the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) from 1889–1896 and then spent a year in Paris at the Academie Delacluse. He was appointed a member of the drawing and painting department at the GSA in 1910 and remained on the teaching staff until his retirement in 1938.

Ian Fleming, artist and teacher: born Glasgow 19 November 1906; Lecturer, Glasgow School of Art 1931-48; ARSA 1947, RSA 1956; RSW 1947; Warden, Patrick Allen-Fraser Art College, Hospitalfield, Arbroath 1948-54; Principal, Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen 1954-71; Chairman, Peacock Printmakers Workshop, Aberdeen 1973-86; married 1943 Catherine Weetch (one son, two daughters); died Aberdeen 24 July 1994.

Born the younger son of John Fleming (d. 1939) a painter and decorator and his wife Catherine nee McLean (d. 1970) a Gaelic speaker from Tiree. Although at birth he was given the name John he was always known as Ian. He was educated in Glasgow at Church Street primary school, where he first discovered he had a talent for drawing, and at Hyndland secondary school. From 1924 to 1929 he studied drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art, where he also began printmaking. There he was taught lithography and colour woodcut by Chika McNab and Josephine Haswell Miller. He first exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1927 and at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1930.

Fleming spent the year 1930-31 at Jordanhill Teacher Training College, Glasgow. In 1931 he was appointed assistant lecturer at Glasgow School of Art, where he taught life drawing, painting, and art history. Through Adam Bruce Thomson he met the Edinburgh printmaker and stained-glass artist William Wilson. The two became firm friends and shared ideas on printmaking, each influencing the other. Nominated in 1933 by Wilson, Fleming became an active member of the Society of Artist Printmakers. At Glasgow School of Art he taught Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, and his large oil portrait of these two young artists won the 1938 Guthrie award. His 1940 painting Art Students Preparing a Still Life was one of only a few works to survive a fire in his studio in 1942.

Fleming rejoined Glasgow School of Art in 1946 as a senior lecturer, and in 1948 he was appointed warden at the Patrick Allan-Fraser Art College, Hospitalfield, Arbroath. While there he moved away from printmaking towards painting (in watercolours and oils) pastoral landscapes and fishing harbours; he also continued to paint very strong portraits. His skills as an administrator and teacher were used to the full during his term as principal from 1954 to 1971 of Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen. At the time of his appointment the school's premises were attached to Aberdeen Art Gallery and very limited. Fleming revived the department of printmaking, expanded the entire curriculum, and created a library. But his major achievement was the removal of Gray's to Garthdee and a purpose-built college that put Aberdeen on the map of national art education. He wanted to promote at Gray's the basic excellence of drawing, combined with emotional feeling. Colleagues recalled him as unpretentious, modest, enthusiastic, and full of energy. He visited every school in the Aberdeen area and gave talks about the opportunities at Gray's. From 1956 onwards he visited Shetland to teach in the summer schools at Jarlshof.

Fleming died of kidney failure in Aberdeen on 24 July 1994 and was cremated on 28 July at Aberdeen crematorium. He was survived by his wife and three children. A commemorative plaque was placed on his house at 15 Fonthill Road, Aberdeen. In 1996 Aberdeen Art Gallery mounted a memorial exhibition. A posthumous bust by Gilbert Watt is in Aberdeen Art Gallery, which also holds the major collection of paintings and prints from his estate. Other collections holding works by Fleming include the Glasgow School of Art; the Glasgow Art Gallery; the Hunterian Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh; the Royal West of England Academy; the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle; the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; and the Ulster Museum, Belfast.