DOI Heft:
Nr. 208 (July 1910)
DOI Artikel:Taylor, J.: The Glasgow school of embroidery
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20970#0151
EMBROIDERED PANEL
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY MADGE MAITLAND
all interested in the progress of art and the
position of women.
If there be a difficulty in exactly determining
the genesis of impressionistic painting, or the
beginning of the modern decorative movement at
Glasgow, it is no easier to fix the actual beginnings
of the new needlework. Each new development
in art activity is but a special manifestation of the
all-embracing spirit of the modern renaissance;
each and all are related and inter-related, springing
as they do from the same mother source. If this
is recognised anywhere it is in the busy city by the
Clyde, where in schools and studios and house-
holds there is a great community of earnest, active
artists and craft workers, following the quest of
the beautiful with a devotion unsurpassed in any
of the great periods in art history. There is no
dilettantism in Glasgow’s art; it is, above all,
practical, adapted and applied to modern idea
and requirement; no echo of a bygone time or
tradition. If this be true of any phase of the
city’s art it is true of the needleworker’s, as will be
shown presently.
It was the London Exhibitions in 1851 and
1861 that demonstrated the depth of degradation
to which the domestic arts had fallen ; that held at
Glasgow in 1901 revealed the strength of the new
The Glasgow School of Embroidery
decorative movement. The first public recogni-
tion of the new embroidery was here; from this
time it became rapidly and extensively popular; it
proved a characteristic contribution on the part of
the women to the problem of beautifying modern
environment, and it has since been pursued
enthusiastically by an ever - growing band of
devotees.
The Glasgow School of Art, the most progressive
institution of its kind, has been the inspiring
centre for the new art in embroidery. There is
scarcely a needleworker of note in the district who
does not owe allegiance to the school and inspira-
tion to its Professor of Embroidery, Miss Ann
Macbeth, now working with a magnetic enthusiasm
quite irresistible, laying the foundations of a
EMBROIDERED PANEL DESIGNED BY ANN MACBETH
WORKED BY MISS CHRISTIE
I27
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY MADGE MAITLAND
all interested in the progress of art and the
position of women.
If there be a difficulty in exactly determining
the genesis of impressionistic painting, or the
beginning of the modern decorative movement at
Glasgow, it is no easier to fix the actual beginnings
of the new needlework. Each new development
in art activity is but a special manifestation of the
all-embracing spirit of the modern renaissance;
each and all are related and inter-related, springing
as they do from the same mother source. If this
is recognised anywhere it is in the busy city by the
Clyde, where in schools and studios and house-
holds there is a great community of earnest, active
artists and craft workers, following the quest of
the beautiful with a devotion unsurpassed in any
of the great periods in art history. There is no
dilettantism in Glasgow’s art; it is, above all,
practical, adapted and applied to modern idea
and requirement; no echo of a bygone time or
tradition. If this be true of any phase of the
city’s art it is true of the needleworker’s, as will be
shown presently.
It was the London Exhibitions in 1851 and
1861 that demonstrated the depth of degradation
to which the domestic arts had fallen ; that held at
Glasgow in 1901 revealed the strength of the new
The Glasgow School of Embroidery
decorative movement. The first public recogni-
tion of the new embroidery was here; from this
time it became rapidly and extensively popular; it
proved a characteristic contribution on the part of
the women to the problem of beautifying modern
environment, and it has since been pursued
enthusiastically by an ever - growing band of
devotees.
The Glasgow School of Art, the most progressive
institution of its kind, has been the inspiring
centre for the new art in embroidery. There is
scarcely a needleworker of note in the district who
does not owe allegiance to the school and inspira-
tion to its Professor of Embroidery, Miss Ann
Macbeth, now working with a magnetic enthusiasm
quite irresistible, laying the foundations of a
EMBROIDERED PANEL DESIGNED BY ANN MACBETH
WORKED BY MISS CHRISTIE
I27