A FORMER teacher visited Ayr Rotary this week to discuss her experience working as a volunteer guide at a Glasgow museum.
Elaine Hanson who once taught at both Kyle and Belmont Academies now dedicates her free time at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Her main passion is fine art and she gave the members of Ayr Rotary Club the benefit of her evident knowledge of some of her own ‘treasures of Kelvingrove’
Elaine began with a short reminder of early history of the building which opened in 1901, designed by Sir John W Simpson.
She discussed the iconic red sandstone of which some was used from quarries in Giffnock.
The original art collections came mainly from the McLellan Galleries and from the old Kelvingrove House Museum in Kelvingrove Park.
Elaine took the audience on a journey through time beginning with the 18th and early 19th century enlightenment period and specific reference to Sir Henry Raeburn’s portrait of Alexander Ranaldson MacDonnell of Glengarry. After that, via respectful acknowledgement of Charles Rennie MacIntosh. Then members were shown Glasgow’s most important painting, Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross, acquired in 1952 for £8,200 and now worth an estimated £60million.
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