Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum houses one of Europe’s great art collections. It is the most popular free-to-enter visitor attraction in Scotland and the most visited museum in the United Kingdom outside London. The purpose-built museum opened in 1901. The scope of the museum is wide ranging and, when Kelvingrove re-opened in July 2006 after a three-year restoration and redisplay project, it was organised into two halves: Life and Expression. The Life galleries represent natural history, human history and prehistory. The Expression galleries include the fine art collections. A significant part of the paintings collection comes from the bequest of Archibald McLellan. The important collection of French 19th century paintings includes works by Monet, Gauguin and Renoir. Further highlights are Rembrandt’s ‘Man in Armour’, ‘Christ and the Adulteress’ by Titian and Salvador Dali’s ‘Christ of St John of the Cross’. Scottish art includes paintings by the Scottish Colourists and the Glasgow Boys.

Marianne Grant’s story is a remarkable one of courage. She was a Czech Jewish artist who managed to paint in the most extreme circumstances, and her works of art tell of her experiences of World War II and imprisonment in Theresienstadt ghetto, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, and life as a refugee in Sweden. These unique and extraordinary works, painted at first hand, and now in the collections of Glasgow Museums, help us to better understand the impact of the Holocaust. Her work still resonates today, particularly in Glasgow, the city that became her home and a city which has a strong tradition of welcoming refugees.

Not every artwork is on display – if you would like to see a particular work, contact the venue before your visit.