Sir William Burrell

"The collection and not the collector is the important thing"

(Sir William Burrell)

Sir William Burrell would not have welcomed an article about himself, as he was a private man who avoided publicity and attention. As the introductory statement proves, he valued the works which he collected but regarded himself as unimportant in comparison to them. However, The Burrell Collection would never have become if Sir William had not collected artworks. Furthermore, his collection is one of the largest gathered by any one man and one which he eventually, generously presented, as a gift, to the city of Glasgow for public enjoyment. How then can any writer be expected to omit him when discussing The Burrell Collection?

Burrell was born in Glasgow on 9 July 1861 to father William Burrell and mother Isabella (née Guthrie). The family owned a shipping business which was founded by Burrell’s grandfather George in 1856 after moving from Northumberland to Glasgow in the early 1830’s. George acted as a shipping and forwarding agent at Port Dundas, the Glasgow terminus of the Forth and Clyde canal. The business operated under the name Burrell and Son. By aged 15 William (junior) was involved in this family business. Together with his brother George, he learned the business under his father and by 1888-1890 Burrell and Son, now run by the two sons, had become one of the largest steam-ship companies based in Glasgow. However, Burrell was not yet 40 years old when, around 1898-1900, he and George decided to sell the entire fleet amidst a prosperous period in the shipping industry. They would wait until the next slump before they rocked the shipping world again in 1905. He was by now an extremely wealthy man.

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Sir William Burrell

 

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Burrell's wife, Lady Constance

 However, throughout his successful life in the shipping industry, William also fed his keen interest in art. It was in his schooldays that his attraction to artworks first began, as he was buying pictures with his pocket money. This annoyed his father, who ultimately gave his son no encouragement in his artistic interests.  His business tips abroad when he was in the family business allowed him to gain a wider scope in the art world and to collect artworks which interested him.   He had a wide ranging taste in art and collected from various differing fields.   For this he has often been criticised as some believe that Burrell's collecting patterns meant that he spread his net too widely and that had he confined his tastes to fewer areas his final collection would have been stronger although narrower.  Why certain critics believe that they have a right to criticise Burrell's personal taste in art is rather surprising.  The fact that his collection does cover a wide range of areas in art only makes his collection more interesting.  Lord Clark describes Burrell's collecting style in more appropriate terms: "He was not simply an amasser; he was an aesthete" 1.

1. Lord Clark, quoted in Richard Marks, Burrell: A Portrait of a Collector, Glasgow, 1983, p.20.

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