Glasgow: Kelvingrove galleries and Glaschu at the Western Club

While staying in Edinburgh, I took the train to Glasgow to catch up with Anne, from E's dad's family.  We had a lovely meal and great chat at the Western Club followed by a visit to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (above photo).  Usually we have caught up with Anne in North Berwick of Edinburgh so it was a nice change to see her in Glasgow.

We went to lunch at the Western Club because Anne is a member.  However the restaurant at the club, Glashu, is open to the public.  You don't need to be a member to eat there.  "Glashu" is Scottish Gaelic for Glasgow.  As this would suggest, the restaurant prides itself on celebrating Scottish produce, albeit with international influences.

On the way from the entrance hall up the stairs to the restaurant, I passed war memorials from the two World Wars on beautiful carved wooden plaques.  Anne was quite familiar with the place and the people there, though it wasn't that busy when we were there.

Glaschu is a elegant restaurant with grey hues and wonderful muted floral arrangements.  It was lovely sit by the window enjoying sunshine good Scottish food and a blether.  Although I have spent time with Anne quite often at family catch-ups in Edinburgh and North Berwick, I have rarely spent time just one on one with her.   It was lovely to have catch up on family and travels. 

I ordered the main dish of the "Celeriac and Truffle: Butter celeriac fondant, pickled celeriac, mushroom puree, cavalo nero, celeriac jus".  It was lovely albeit more starter than main.  I was a little confused when my meal came because I had been unsure what was meant by celeriac fondant.  It seemed to be slabs of celeriac cooked until creamy inside.  When I look back at the photo I took of the menu, I am more confused.  The fondant was topped with bean sprouts, maybe in lieu of the missing cavalo nero (dark kale).  I do not see the pickled celeriac.  While the fondant was a nicely cooked vegetable by itself, it was wonderful with the generous jug of well seasoned jus and amazing truffled mushroom puree, as well as the fancy mushrooms that came on the puree.  I loved the meal for being something I have never had before and tasting so unusual but so good.

Anne had the Roasted Squash Risotto with pistachio, pine nut, dill and tarragon.  She said her meal was very nice and quite filling.

I wasn't quite full after my main so I eagerly perused the dessert menu and ordered the Guinness Sticky Toffee Pudding with salted caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream.  The pudding was wonderfully soft and went well with the sauce and ice cream.  Anne was very happy with some ice cream and a coffee.  I also really enjoyed a hot chocolate at the end of the meal.

Then we caught a taxi to The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.  Anne told me the story of the architect of the building returning when it was completed, only to find that the entrance had been built at the back rather than the front.  He was so upset he committed suicide.  Before writing this post, I checked for more details online and the only information I could find was that it is an urban myth.  But what a great urban myth!  It makes people look at the architecture of the 1901 Spanish Baroque building with renewed interest.  Anne also pointed out where she studied at the nearby Glasgow University.

Upon entering we made our way to the past the magnificent pipe organ (2889 pipes).  It is amazing that there is a free organ recital here every day.  (We missed it.)  Actually it is so impressive that there is no entry fee to see this great collection of art and history (compared to a $15 adult entry to the Melbourne Museum). No wonder it is so popular.

As is always the case, we had limited time and could only see a small part of the collections.  We passed the Life Gallery ((ironic as many of the exhibits are dead taxidermied animals) so I had a quite look.  Also notable are Sir Roger the Elephant and a Spitfire LA198 plane suspended from the ceiling.  I was drawn to this lovely giraffe.

We walked through the opposite East Gallery (Expression) with faces of all kinds.  Busts of well known faces if Queen Victoria at the front is anything to go bu but also faces suspended from the ceiling.

We were headed to the Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style exhibition.  Charles Rennie Mackintosh worked on design with Miss Cranston who opened a series of tea rooms in Glasgow (including the Willow Tearooms) around the turn of the Century.  When the Ingram Street Tearooms was bought by the Glasgow Corporation in 1950 and then demolished in 1971, the rooms were catalogued and stored elsewhere.  Today we are able to see a set up of the room at the museum.  It is quite lovely with Mcintosh's gesso panel 'The Wassail' backlit above the panelled walls
.

We went upstairs and got a closer look at the Floating Heads by Sophie Cave.  I was fascinated by so many expressions on these ghostly faces suspended above the East Court with a backdrop of elegant Victorian arched balconies.

I also loved the seemingly endless arched corridors on the first floor.  Such a beautiful building to explore.

We had a look at the Dutch art.  Many fine paintings from the Seventeenth Century.  I liked this one: A Fire at Night by Egbert van der Poel 1621-1664.  The card with the title and artist also had notes that he was the best known painter of fire in the Netherlands.  I have visions of a building on fire and someone urgently calling van der Poel to paint it.

I really enjoyed the notes on the painting that accompanied the title and artist.  They were fairly brief but gave some context.  Much easier than juggling a brochure or finding the right place on an audio guide headset.  My favourite notes were on the above painting: The Doctor's Visit, 1657 by Frans van Mieris the Elder.  I have replicated them in full here and wont comment too much but I will just give you this Seventeenth Century remedy for lovesickness: reading the Old Testament.  Really!  The Bible was used to cure broken hearts!

"The pale woman in this painting is suffering from lovesickness - a medical condition thought to be cured by reading the Old Testament, which is lying open on her lap. An elaborately-dressed doctor takes her pulse. He points to his head, indicating that her affliction is all in her mind. Doctors were sources of humour at the time - 'quack' doctors were thought to fool their patients with false and theatrical diagnoses."

Anne suggested we see the Scottish Colourists, especially this above F.C.B. Cadell's Interior: the Orange Blind c 1927.  The Scottish Colourists were four artists at the turn of the Twentieth Century who experimented with colour and impressionism, especially influenced by French art.  This particular artwork is nominated by the gallery as one of its top ten recommended objects to visit.  The use of colour is brilliant in this portrait of a woman in a Georgian flat in the New Town of Edinburgh.

I was also loved this Landscape, about 1917 by Peploe.  The use of bright greens and shapes made a vivid impression on me.  One of the traits of Impressionism is that pictures were often painted quickly, sometimes in in-situ, without more attention to the general character of the subject rather than attention to detail.

We also wandered through the French Art gallery.  It had many well known names, though not all were their well known paintings.  Above is The Blute-Fin Windmill, Montmatre by Vincent Van Gogh 1886 was a really lovely painting by a well known artist that I had never seen before.  I am sure this part of Monmatre in Paris looks far less rustic now.

Then it was time to check the gift shop and catch a bus back to the Queen Street Train Station.  En route I passed this 1844 statue by Carlo Marochetti of Arthur Wellsley, the Duke of Wellington.  The fun of the public putting a traffic cone on his head has been at times controversial and iconic.  It was recently declared Banksy's "favourite work of art in the UK" and special traffic cones have been made for the statue to commemorate moments such as the Brexit referendum and the Covid pandemic.  I was amazed at how much it featured in souvenirs.

The traffic cone statue sits in front of the Gallery of Modern Art, which is very close to the Royal Exchange Square where we had lunch at Glaschu.  Anne had suggested this gallery but I had been set on seeing Kelvingrove, which I might or might not have been to on visits to Glasgow many years ago.

Lastly I passed the wonderful George Square with the Glasgow City Chambers.  It is a really imposing late Nineteenth Century building to show just where the power was!  I don't know Glasgow very well but it is a great place to visit.  

However I think the traffic cone tourism illustrates how Glasgow has so many less icons than Edinburgh.  When I lived in Edinburgh the David Hume statue near the City Chambers often had a traffic cone on his head.  E and I used to pass it by and comment that the students were at it again.  When I have visited Edinburgh since there is usually a traffic cone on him.  But it could not compete with the icons of Edinburgh such as the Castle, the Royal Mile Closes, Greyfriars Bobby, the Grassmarket and the Walter Scott Memorial.  I often say that Edinburgh is like Sydney because it impresses instantly whereas Glasgow is more of a slow burn like Melbourne but has many rewards once you get to know it.

Glashu
The Western Club
32 Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
Open 7 days a week, 12-11pm
https://glaschurestaurant.co.uk/
https://www.westernclub.co.uk/facilities/dining/restaurant/