Rustic Realism
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 30 works by some of the major figures associated with the Glasgow Boys which date from 1881 to 1886. This collection includes paintings, pastels, watercolours, and drawings by artists including James Guthrie, James Paterson, EA Walton, George Henry, William Kennedy, Alexander Mann, David Gauld and Joseph Crawhall. Following the example set by their French counterparts, several of the Glasgow Boys settled in country retreats in the lowlands of Scotland where they could paint 'En plein air' (literally, 'In the open air') and immerse themselves in the daily lives of the farm labourers and village people. The Glasgow Boys were a group of young Scottish artists, active from between 1880 and 1895, who reacted against the dominance and formal constraints employed by the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. By 1900 Glasgow was the British Empire's second city and the largest city in Scotland, making it an ideal location for a more progressive art practice. The Glasgow Boys' 'Rustic Realism' was influenced by the work of Jean Francois Millet and other painters of the Barbizon School, the rustic naturalism of Jules Bastien-Lepage and the Dutch painters of The Hague School.
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