William Simpson: The “Clyde-built” artist

 

In the Introductory text to Glasgow in the Forties, William Simpson wrote that he had “often been asked, and that too in very far away parts of the world, as to where I was born. My answer at times has been that I “was Clyde-built.” The metaphor was scarcely ever misunderstood, showing Glasgow’s reputation in at least one branch of mechanical industry.”

 

Simpson is, without any doubt, one of the most important artists who was born, and studied, in Glasgow.

 

For further information, please see George Fairfull-Smith, The Wealth of a City: A ‘Glance’ at the Fine Arts in Glasgow, Volume One: 1641-1830, 2010.

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, January 2020.