n Spitfire hanging dramatically from the ceiling of the West Court

Kelvingrove’s 8,000-item-collection includes many pieces of international significance. Among these are 19th-century British artists including Turner and Constable, and French Impressionist and Dutch Renaissance painters. Scottish art and design is well represented with rooms dedicated to the Scottish Colourists and the Glasgow Style.

The museum offers insight into Glasgow’s evolution from its medieval beginnings to its 19th- and 20th-century economic and cultural transformation, to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which the city hosted.

Experience Glasogow

t Visitors exploring the Natural History Gallery

Experience Glasogow

Gallery Highlights

The Dutch Gallery Rembrandt’s Man in Armour sets the tone for Kelvingrove’s collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish masters, which is recognized as one of the UK’s finest. Other paintings worth seeking out include Benjamin Gerritszoon Cuyp’s The Quack Doctor, and the supporting cast includes Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Daniel de Blieck, and Abraham van Beyeren.

The French Gallery Van Gogh’s portrait of the red-headed, red-bearded Alexander Reid makes the Glasgow-born art dealer, a friend of the artist, look almost like Vincent’s twin brother. Raoul Dufy’s The Jetties of Trouville-Deauville is another stand-out work in a stellar portfolio of paintings by 19th- and 20th- century greats including Braque, Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro and Renoir.

The Scottish Colourists Though they are more closely associated with Edinburgh than with Glasgow, the Scottish Colourists are well represented at Kelvingrove. Cadell’s elegantly poised A Lady in Black and Peploe’s Roses are outstanding examples of each artist’s style. Hunter’s A Summer Day, Largo and Fergusson’s On the Beach at Tangier are variations on the classic maritime themes that both these painters loved.

The Glasgow Boys James Guthrie’s Old Willie;The Village Worthy, a sympathetic portrait of an elderly man, contrasts strongly here with the colourful, almost psychedelic mysticism of The Druids: Bringing in the Mistletoe by George Henry and E.A. Hornel, illustrating the breadth of vision of this celebrated group of painters. The Kelvingrove collection is the world’s leading portfolio of works by the dynamic “Glasgow Boys”.

Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style Woodwork and gesso panels, stylish furniture, beautifully detailed light fittings and other decorative elements that are hallmarks of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s distinctive style have pride of place in the reconstructed Ingram Street Tearooms, designed by Mackintosh working together with his wife, Margaret MacDonald between 1900 and 1912. Tearooms were the first dining establishments to allow unaccompanied women, and the elegant Ladies Luncheon Room is the epitome of Edwardian elegance.