Glasgow Girls

In 1885 Fra Newbery was appointed Director of the Glasgow School of Art and did much in terms of gender equality amongst his staff and pupils. Between then and the death in 1965 of Anne Redpath an unprecedented number of Scottish women trained and practised as artists in all media. Prior to the 19th century, women were excluded from most forms of artistic training. In order to receive a sound training in art, several Scottish women travelled to Paris when no such restrictions applied. These discipline included life drawing from the nude, a practice not permitted to women in Scotland. The first society in Scotland committed exclusively to the professional status of women artists was the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists, founded in 1882. Emanating from this largely prior to World War II was an informal group of artists, designers and artisans latterly labelled in the 1960's as Glasgow Girls. They included Margaret and Frances MacDonald, Jessie M. King, Annie French, Helen Paxton Brown, Jessie Newbery, Ann Macbeth, Bessie MacNicol, Norah Neilson Gray, Stansmore Dean, Eleanor Allen Moore and De Courcy Lewthwaite Dewar.