Leiper Gallery

NEW

117 West George Street Glasgow G2 1QR

William Leiper (sculpture by William Birnie Rhind), 1894

Category A Listed

French Gothic meets Victorian Glasgow. Sun Insurance commissioned this A-listed building with sculpture by William Birnie Rhind and an art gallery on the ground floor. Home to Alexander Reid who showed the Glasgow Boys here. Restored in 2014 and once again showing fine art.

At the corner of West George Street and Renfield Street in the city centre you will find an enormous red sandstone building in a Victorian interpretation of Sixteenth Century French Gothic, designed by the celebrated architect William Leiper for the Sun Insurance company, whose directors loved art so much that they commissioned a gallery in part of the ground floor. With sculpture by William Birnie Rhind the building won the silver medal at the 1900 Paris International.

The first tenants were the van Baerle Brothers, who introduced Dutch painting to Glasgow, then from 1904 the gallery was home to Alexander Reid, who had trained in Paris as a fine art dealer and and shared digs with Vincent and Theo van Gogh for a while. Reid called his gallery the “Societe des Beaux-arts” and held frequent shows of mainly French and Scottish artists. He introduced the Impressionists to the British public and he encouraged and brought on the Glasgow Boys, many of whom had studied in France. Bargains were made in a secret meeting room off the main gallery.

After eighty two years in other use the Leiper Gallery has been restored and you can walk on the floor that the great artists of the past walked on. The gallery is attracting some of the leading contemporary artists, mixing conventional group and solo shows with occasional special events. For details of current and future events please visit www.leiperfineart.com.

Hosting a Lids Open Day

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