The Burrell Collection


(Burrell Collection)

Burrell Collection, Pollok Country Park
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

Burrell Collection, Pollok Country Park

A collection of treasures gifted to the City of Glasgow in 1944 by Sir William Burrell, ship owner and art collector, and his wife Constance, the Burrell Collection is located in a purpose built gallery within Pollok Country Park. After much wrangling over where the collection should be located, in 1963, it was finally agreed that it should be housed in a specially-designed building located in the park.

Designed by Barry Gasson, John Meunier and Brit Anderson of the Cambridge University School of Architecture, the Gallery was finally opened to the public on 21st October 1983 by Queen Elizabeth II. The building is clad in Locharbriggs red sandstone, which is combined with glass and stainless steel. The gallery closed in 2016 for a £68.25 million refurbishment which saw a significant expansion of the space available to display the collection. It was re-opened by King Charles III on 13th October 2022.

The collection comprises: 19th-century paintings, including works by Degas, Cézanne, Manet, Renoir, Lavery, McTaggart and Whistler; North European Mediaeval art and artefacts, including stained glass, sculptures, arms and armour, religious objects and some of the world's finest tapestries; European post-Mediaeval art, comprising of silver, table glass and needlework; Oriental art which includes Chinese ceramics, Japanese prints and bronzes and jade; Near-East carpets from areas between India and Turkey; and artefacts such as sculpture and pottery from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Assyria and Mesopotamia. Other notable items include The Thinker by Auguste Rodin, a Bronze-Age bracelet, a Roman mosaic fragment, Islamic wall tiles and a still-life by Samuel J. Peploe (1871 - 1935).


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