Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. The museum has 22 galleries, housing a range of exhibits, including Renaissance art, taxidermy, and artifacts from ancient Egypt.

The gallery is located on Argyle Street, on the banks of the River Kelvin. The construction of Kelvingrove was partly financed by the proceeds of the 1888 International Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park.

Kelvingrove was reopened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 after a three-year closure for major refurbishment and restoration.

Collections

The museum's collections came mainly from the McLellan Galleries and from the old Kelvingrove House Museum in Kelvingrove Park. It has one of the finest collections of arms and armour in the world and a vast natural history collection. The art collection includes many outstanding European artworks, including works by the Old Masters (Vecellio's Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Dorothy, Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerard de Lairesse, and Jozef Israëls), French Impressionists (such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Vincent van Gogh and Mary Cassatt), Dutch Renaissance, Scottish Colourists and exponents of the Glasgow School.

The museum houses Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí. The copyright of this painting was bought by the curator at the time after a meeting with Dalí himself. For a period between 1993 and 2006, the painting was moved to the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art.

The museum also contains a large gift of the decorative arts from Anne Hull Grundy, an art collector and philanthropist, covering the history of European jewellery in the 18th and 19th centuries.

User Reviews

Gill D (10 months ago)
What a great place. Amazing building. Full of treasures, brilliant selection of art work, historical treasures and natural history sections. All displayed clearly with easy to understand information. Best selection we’d seen in one place for a long time. Thoroughly enjoyed our day here. Good cafe too. Highly recommended

Gillian Long (11 months ago)
Beautiful place to visit, unbelievable that entry is free, we spent 2 hours looking around and I don’t think we saw it all, definitely worth the visit. The bridge over the river at the back of the museum is also really nice it has big statues and there’s a small pedestrian bridge to the left of the property at the front that’s pretty, you can see the ventilated spire on the university from here too.

Ceri Jones (13 months ago)
Fantastic museum and even more amazing that it's free too. Huge space with so many different things to see, highly recommended and only around 35-40 min walk from the city centre. Beautiful gardens around it too can imagine its crazy there in the summer!!

Steven Digby (2 years ago)
A wonderful way to spend a Summer afternoon. Walk through the park to the museum and back again. Lovely. The dinosaurs are not local but it's still fun to walk under and around. The art is spectacular and sometimes amusing. Something for everyone over age 7.

Timothy Arnold-Moore (2 years ago)
Well worth a visit! Organ recital at 1pm most days. Lots of interesting exhibits. Famous Dali and great museum store. Walk up the hill when done and visit the museum at Glasgow University as well.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

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Tyniec Benedictine abbey was founded by King Casimir the Restorer probably around 1044. Casimir decided to rebuild the newly established Kingdom of Poland, after a Pagan rebellion and a disastrous Czech raid of Duke Bretislaus I (1039). The Benedictines, invited to Tyniec by the King, were tasked with restoring order as well as cementing the position of the State and the Church. First Tyniec Abbot was Aaron, who became the Bishop of Kraków. Since there is no conclusive evidence to support the foundation date as 1040, some historians claim that the abbey was founded by Casimir the Restorer’ son, King Boleslaw II the Generous.

In the second half of the 11th century, a complex of Romanesque buildings was completed, consisting of a basilica and the abbey. In the 14th century, it was destroyed in Tatar and Czech raids, and in the 15th century it was rebuilt in Gothic style. Further remodelings took place in the 17th and 18th centuries, first in Baroque, then in Rococo style. The abbey was partly destroyed in the Swedish invasion of Poland, and soon afterwards was rebuilt, with a new library. Further destruction took place during the Bar Confederation, when Polish rebels turned the abbey into their fortress.

In 1816, Austrian authorities liquidated the abbey, and in 1821-1826, it was the seat of the Bishop of Tyniec, Grzegorz Tomasz Ziegler. The monks, however, did not return to the abbey until 1939, and in 1947, remodelling of the neglected complex was initiated. In 1968, the Church of St. Peter and Paul was once again named the seat of the abbot. The church itself consists of a Gothic presbytery and a Baroque main nave. Several altars were created by an 18th-century Italian sculptor Francesco Placidi. The church also has a late Baroque pulpit by Franciszek Jozef Mangoldt.

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