A Day in Glasgow

Written: Tuesday 14th June

The Nighthawk went into the Car Hospital today at 0800 so I was left with no transport.  I caught a bus (one of those big things which hold lots of people, stops a lot and swarm all over the City) from the Hospital into the City Centre and then caught another one out to The Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.  Anna came there for lunch and then took me to collect the Nighthawk.

When I got into the City Centre first thing this morning (ie around 9am) I decided to have some breakfast.  On Sauchiehall Street I found Bradford's Tea Room (it's also a bakery) with a very enticing menu.  Like so many of these places in the UK it promised much more than it delivered.  Its bacon roll might have been delicious but as they had no Earl Grey tea and the coffee came in a paper cup I declined their offer and went elsewhere.

I was once a member of the former Scottish Royal Automobile Club (an old-fashioned Residential  Club in Blytheswood Square in the centre of Glasgow).  As it had closed some years ago I wondered what had become of it.  Well it is now The Blytheswood Hotel and a very exclusive place it is too.

 

The SRAC Arms are still on the wall

'Motherless' about which I have blogged before.

Portrait Head by David Gauld about 1895.  Out of the thousands of pictures this one always captures my heart

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From the sublime to the ridiculous!

At 1pm most days there is an organ recital.

Motherless

Last October I blogged about a sculpture in the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow to which I took a real fancy.  I thought it was one of the most moving sculptures I'd ever seen.  As I hadn't made a note of the title nor the sculptor nor could I find any details of it on the Kelvingrove website, I simply called it Father and Child.  Two things happened today.  I read Simply Heather's posting Cultivating Flourishing Appreciation and Martin came back from Scotland having been to the Kelvingrove and looked up the information for me.  The title of the piece is Motherless and it is by George Anderson Lawson (1832 - 1904).

Hugh Stevenson, Sculpture Curator, kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery has said of the piece on the Relicarte website:

The heart-rending sculpture by George Lawson has been a firm favourite among visitors since being bought for Kelvingrove in 1901. The story behind the ensemble of the sad little girl in the arms of her distraught father needs no explanation apart from the title Motherless. One can only speculate how mother met her end – in a tragic accident perhaps, or in one of the epidemics that swept Victorian Britain.

The popularity of this piece is guaranteed by its appeal to the emotions. It is by far the best-known work by Scottish sculptor George Lawson; in fact it is probably the only work known to most people by the man who was responsible for the figure groups on the front of Glasgow’s City Chambers.

What is the relevance of Heather's posting and and why did it prompt this posting?  The fact that she had found a wonderful statue of a child.

Life is just so full of coincidences.