Biography
The Hunterian, University of Glasgow is the oldest public museum in Scotland. William Hunter (1718-1783) bequeathed his collections to the University of Glasgow and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery first opened to the public in 1807. It moved in the 1870s to new University buildings in the west of the city and in 1980 it was provided with the purpose-built Hunterian Art Gallery at the centre of the campus. It holds some 900 paintings and over 40,000 prints and sculpture of international importance. As well as a large number of works and the archive from the estate of James McNeill Whistler and items, including whole interiors, from Glasgow's local Charles Rennie Mackintosh, it is also home to masterpieces including those by Rembrandt, Chardin and Stubbs. It has Impressionist paintings by Eugène Louis Boudin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Henri Fantin-Latour, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley. Scottish art is well represented with works by William McTaggart, the Glasgow Boys, the Scottish Colourists, Joan Eardley, Robin Philipson and Eduardo Paolozzi.
The Hunterian has also more recently developed an important group of works by leading contemporary artists, with nearly 90 being donated by the Contemporary Art Society. New acquisitions seek to complement and investigate the museum's permanent collections, including notable pieces by Lucy Skaer, Ilana Halperin, Mat Collishaw, Mark Dion and Christine Borland.
