Kelvingrove Bite - Cotton, Tartan and Fashion
Join Curator of British Art Jo Meacock to hear more about this impressive coming-of-age portrait depicting the sons of cotton manufacturer James Dunlop and Mary Barr of Arthurlie House, Neilston. Painted around 1846 by Glasgow artist Daniel Macnee, it was gifted to the museum in 2023 and is now part of our ‘Tartan’ story in the Scottish Identity in Art gallery in Kelvingrove.
The portrait demonstrates the growing fashion for tartan childrenswear, encouraged by Queen Victoria’s Scottish tour in 1842 after which she started dressing her own children in tartan. It is also fascinating in terms of gender and adolescence, the youngest boy Robert depicted wearing a tartan dress while his older brothers wear shirts and velvet frock coats.
The talk will also address childhood inequality and the human exploitation that lay behind Scotland’s cotton industry, at home and overseas.
Free 10 min talk. No need to book. Please meet at the info desk in the main hall 5 mins before.
Daniel Macnee, ‘Robert, Henry and William Dunlop’, about 1846, oil on canvas. Given by Alastair Barr Dunlop and family, 2023. CSG CIC Glasgow Museums and Libraries Collections.
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