PRIVATE PICTURE COLLECTIONS IN GLASGOW AND WEST OF SCOTLAND

 11 ~ MR. ANDREW MAXWELL'S COLLECTION.

By ROBERT WALKER.

As I have already pointed out in. my first article on Glasgow and West of Scotland private picture collections, the particular direction that the cultured art-taste of Glasgow has taken during the last twenty years or so has been mainly determined by the personal influence of a few men who, with decided opinions, have been always ready to give reasons for the faith that is in them, and to express their convictions in their practice. One of these leaders, Mr. Andrew Maxwell, with whose collection we have now to deal, has been for some time of considerable importance in the art-world of Glasgow.

 A friend of and a sympathiser with the late Mr. John McGavin, he was for several years associated with that gentleman on the Council of the Glasgow Institute of the fine Arts, and succeeded him as the Institute's honorary secretary, an office from which he has since retired, although he still takes a lively interest in all local art-matters. His own collection includes some fine examples of good men. His taste is pretty severe. I can imagine Mr. Maxwell not approving of a picture that really had merit, but not his approving of a picture that was bad or in any way meretricious.

His example of George Paul Chalmers, the "Monk's Head" (see p. 224), while not one of the most typical works of this artist, is admirable for its flesh tints and effects of light and shade. It is painted in a strong masculine style. The memory of Paul Chalmers will long be affectionately cherished by those who had the privilege of knowing him, and who, understanding somewhat of the art-history of their country, can appreciate the quiet power he has been for good. His was a lovable nature, bright and kindly - with its times, too, of depression and doubt - and utterly free from narrowness, spite, or envy. His enthusiasm and heartiness were sometimes almost boyish in their fervour. He was an artist to his finger-tips - too much of an artist to be in any way a man of the world. One of the pupils of Robert Scott Lauder, who served so usefully the cause of art-education in Scotland, he soon gave free play to his own natural instincts, and, as a painter, ranked himself on the side of Rembrandt. His colour was often splendid; he never lacked feeling or expression. He could not paint what he did not sympathise with; he loved mystery and suggestiveness, luminous shadows and tender half-tones.