The Kelvin Connection

What, you may ask, does the man wearing the askew traffic cone (another example of Scottish "taking the piss out") have to do with 47 Pianos?  William Thomson, a Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for more than half a century, was ennobled as a result of his many discoveries, including the laws of thermodynamics.  He became Lord Kelvin, after the River Clyde tributary that runs near the campus.

I mistakenly assumed  that the magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, which opened in 1901, less than a decade after Thomson became Lord Kelvin, was named for him. Not so.  It took the name from Kelvingrove, the leafy neighborhood that includes the university.

In 1916, the year my mother was born, the company that first convinced Americans to replace their iceboxes with mechanical refrigerators adopted Lord Kelvin's name in homage. The company became Frigidaire in the early 90s long after my landlord installed a brand new Kelvinator for my kitchen in the brownstone he bought and converted to rental property.  Who knew a tributary in Scotland could forge so many connections--or that I would have the same refrigerator nearly as long as Lord Kelvin taught natural philosophy!

 

Now we've gotten that out of the way, the Kelvingrove is a cabinet of curiosities, old and new, even larger than the Hunterian.

Scottish art interested me the most, especially the Glasgow Boys exhibit.  

"Portrait Head" by David Gauld (ca 1893-4)

"The Fur Boa" by William Kennedy (1890-3)

"Blue Flax" by EA Hornel (1917)

"Autumn" by John Reid Murray (1895)

Anna Pavlova by John Lavery (1910)

Chris, who took the train from Edinburgh after flying in from Prague, met us at the museum.  He pointed out Glasgow boys of another variety in an exhibit of contemporary photos.  "One of them could be Shuggie Bain."

Glasgow Style got its due, too.

Tin Triptych (partial) by Marion Henderson Wilson (ca 1905)

Willow Tearoom Art by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1903)

Glasgow Rose

Famous Scots powwowed in another gallery.

Walter Scott

Robert Burns (as Che Guevara)

People queue up to see the museum's most famous painting.  Chris, who barely recalled our visit to Figueres, said it improved his opinion of Dali.  "You never see the Crucifixion from this perspective."

"Christ of St John of the Cross" by Salvador Dali (1951)

As I noted earlier, you can't escape American pop culture.  And I can't wait to see Elvis!

"Return to  Sender" by Sean Read (1996)

Thom wore the same expression he had after touring Graceland.  Time to shop while Chris went off to look for a road map at Waterstones.