WHAT’S THE STORY?

IT has been announced that Glasgow’s world-famous Burrell Collection will be re-opening next March after a five year refurbishment and redesign programme costing £68 million.

The re-opening has been delayed by two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Glasgow City Council are confident that the revised timetable can be met.

Expect a blaze of publicity in the run-up to the re-opening, not least because the council, which owns the Collection and runs the museum and galleries which host it, see the return of the Burrell as a significant part of the city’s pandemic recovery. There are many magnificent private collections of art treasures around the world, but none are so idiosyncratic as the Burrell Collection which is truly unique as it represents the tastes and fascinations of a single man, Sir William Burrell, though some of the items were sourced by his wife, Lady Constance.

WHO WAS BURRELL?

BORN in 1861, William Burrell (below) was the scion of a mercantile family of Northumbrian origin which moved its base to Glasgow in the 1830s.

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Taking over the business along with his elder brother George when his father died in 1885, the Burrells hit on a surefire way of becoming very rich – they bought or built entire fleets of steamships when prices were down and then sold them when prices were high.

Burrell had started work at the family firm at the age of 15, and though no-one can really say where his early love of art came from, it is known that he bought his first painting at the same age.

His tastes developed over the years but were always eclectic. Everything from French impressionist paintings to medieval tapestries and Roman glass were early buys – he was the largest single lender to the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901with more than 200 works – before he branched out into ancient Chinese artefacts and other items from ancient civilisations.

Burrell also encouraged Scottish artists, one of his earliest commissions being a painting of his own sister Mary by Sir John Lavery, one of the Glasgow Boys. Scottish colourist Samuel Peploe is also represented in the Collection.

We know all about how, where, when and why he built up his collection because after 1911, and especially after his semi-retirement in 1916, he kept meticulous records of all that he bought and sold.

He was not as wealthy as the Gettys or the Hearsts, and the biggest private art collection in the world belongs to the Queen with a million items, but Burrell bought very wisely and in 1944 had about 6000 items in his collection when he announced he would donate it all to the Glasgow Corporation, largely due to his friendship with city curator Dr Tom Honeyman.

Burrell also gave £450,000 for a building to house his collection, and he continued to add to works up until his death at the age of 96 in 1958 when he and Lady Constance had amassed some 9000 items in all.

WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?

BECAUSE it’s the Burrell, that’s why. It is magnificent and unique and Glasgow is extremely proud of it.

As the Collection website explains: “The Collection holds treasures from all over the world.

“Highlights include one of the most significant collections of Chinese art in the UK and objects from ancient civilisations, including Roman sculpture and Egyptian pottery that is more than 2000 years old.

“There are medieval treasures including stained glass, arms and armour and over 200 tapestries which rank amongst the finest tapestries anywhere in the world, as well as paintings by renowned 19th century French artists like Manet, Cezanne and Degas.”

The latter artist’s work The Red Ballet Skirts is one of the highlights of the Collection, while the Burrell also hosts one of the original castings of the wonderful Rodin sculpture The Thinker.

The Warwick Vase, dating from the 2nd century and found in the villa of the Emperor Hadrian outside Rome, was restored and gifted to the Earl of Warwick in 1774. It was not Burrell himself who acquired it, but the trustees of the Collection in 1978. You can suspect that Sir William would have liked it.

We do know that he liked Late Gothic and Early Renaissance works of art from Northern Europe, as the Collection has some of the finest examples of such works.

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HOW DID IT GET INTO GLASGOW?

THE Collection was largely housed in Burrell’s home, Hutton Castle in Berwickshire, but in his bequest Burrell stated it should be housed 16 miles from Glasgow city centre to avoid pollution.

The Corporation struggled to find a suitable site, but when the local authority was gifted the Pollok estate in 1967, they were able to vary the terms of the bequest and in the 1970s a design competition won by architect Barry Gasson produced the visionary building which was opened by the Queen in 1983.

The combination of the Collection and its stunning home made the Burrell a magnet for art lovers and was instrumental in winning Glasgow the transformational title of European City of Culture in 1990.

During its closure, parts of the Burrell Collection have gone on tour, including to the likes of New York’s Metropolitan Museum and the Musée de Cluny in Paris, and have been acclaimed everywhere that they have gone.

WHAT CHANGES CAN WE LOOK FORWARD TO?

AN all-round refurb with new glazing and a new entrance that will bring visitors straight into the heart of the building while a newly-created central stairway will encourage people to explore all three floors.

On re-opening, the museum’s gallery space will have increased by 35%, allowing some items that have not been seen for decades to go on show.