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Translucent porcelain from China, | 0:00:13 | 0:00:15 | |
exquisite tapestries from France | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
and stained glass | 0:00:19 | 0:00:21 | |
from the monasteries and abbeys of old northern Europe. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:25 | |
9,000 priceless objects | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
representing 4,000 years of human creativity, | 0:00:32 | 0:00:37 | |
all assembled by just one man. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
It's the richness and scale of this collection | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
which makes it so fascinating. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
But what's equally fascinating and intriguing | 0:00:45 | 0:00:48 | |
is what sort of person would put a collection like this together. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
That was William Burrell. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
Burrell was a truly outstanding collector | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
and he deserves to be much better known. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
Burrell has the most outstanding examples of Degas | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
in any collection in Europe. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
There are also extraordinary examples of Chinese art, | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
the Islamic art collection is world-class. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
It's an astonishing collection. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
You will not be disappointed. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
There is nothing like it in here? | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
No, not only in here, anywhere. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
'Gifted to the city of Glasgow in 1944, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
'the Burrell collection is so vast | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
'that less than half is on public display.' | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
I can't believe this is down in the store. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:33 | |
I can't believe this is down in the store! | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
'The story of William Burrell is also the story of Glasgow - | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
'the Second City of Empire at its peak.' | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
It's the story of a man who made a fortune out of shipping | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
and spent it on art... | 0:01:47 | 0:01:48 | |
and his very own castle. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
It just looked like a museum. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
It was absolutely beautiful. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:55 | |
A husband and father whose public success hid personal sadness. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:02 | |
A patron so private, he never commissioned his own portrait. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:06 | |
There's very few accounts of him, he didn't write an autobiography, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
and yet, this is his memorial. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
He wanted something kept together. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
Burrell made a huge impact on the city of Glasgow, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
yet we know almost nothing about him. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
But I've always wondered what drove him to make his fortune | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
and spend a lifetime amassing this unique collection. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
The family wealth had been lost, | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
and I think this was a great impetus to Willie | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
because first of all, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
he wanted to regain the money which had been lost. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
And later on, he hoped to regain the status. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
Whatever motivated the man, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
his collection ensured that his name will never be forgotten. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
There is nothing quite like this anywhere in the world. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
The Burrell Collection opened its doors in 1983 with great fanfare. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:12 | |
The Queen turned the key, | 0:03:13 | 0:03:15 | |
and for the first time a cornucopia of artefacts | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
which had languished in crates in dusty store rooms | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
was displayed for all to see in its purpose-built home, | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
some of it built into the fabric of these very walls. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:29 | |
I remember how excited I was when the Burrell opened. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
It was the first time I'd seen | 0:03:38 | 0:03:39 | |
the wonders of the world in a modern setting. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
And each time I come, | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
I'm rewarded when my eye catches something I've never noticed before. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
William Burrell has been described as the Millionaire Magpie, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
grabbing anything that glittered - | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
a first-century Roman sculpture here, | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
a seventh-century Chinese warrior there. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
But I don't think that's true. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
Burrell developed great passions and then he pursued them. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
He spent his money carefully, very carefully, | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
amassing this extraordinary collection, | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
piece by hand-picked piece. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
A collection he hoped would raise the Burrell family | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
to the highest echelons of society. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
William Burrell didn't have a very smart beginning at all | 0:04:47 | 0:04:51 | |
because he was born in a three-room tenement in Glasgow, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:56 | |
and he was the third child to be born there, | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
so it was fairly full of people, | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
that was in 1861. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
His mother was a dressmaker | 0:05:05 | 0:05:07 | |
and I'm pretty sure that she fitted all the children out | 0:05:07 | 0:05:11 | |
with clothes made by herself. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
And they had to scrape to exist and he was brought up on this, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:19 | |
and he was made to scrape. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
And he really appreciated the value of thrift and he never ever forgot. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:27 | |
At the end of the 19th century, | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
Glasgow offered many ways to get rich for those prepared to take the risk. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:42 | |
Burrell's grandfather started out shifting cargo on the city's canals. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
But the era of industrialisation soon opened up Glasgow | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
to the greater riches of the Empire. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
In just two decades, the Burrell family went from moving barges | 0:05:54 | 0:05:59 | |
to commissioning Clyde-built steamships | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
for their world wide freight business. | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
William left school aged just 14 to try his hand in the family firm. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:11 | |
These were William Burrell's daily surroundings, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
Burrell & Sons offices were here in George Square | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
as it was being built | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
in the prestigious heart of this booming industrial city. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
And a few streets away were the burgeoning commercial art gallery | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
and auction houses where William Burrell headed at every opportunity. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:34 | |
He started off, apparently, when he was 14 | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
and he did manage to bid for a picture successfully, | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
and it was a portrait of a lady and he got it for a few shillings. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:53 | |
And he was very pleased and brought it back. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
And his father, who I think was not that way inclined, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
said, "For goodness sake, William, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
"why don't you spend the money on a cricket bat?" | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
And then he realised that he had no frame. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
And so he thought, "Well, | 0:07:06 | 0:07:07 | |
"I haven't got a frame and I can't afford to get a frame," | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
and so he took it back and resold it and lost money on the transaction. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:16 | |
'But his early mistakes as a teenage collector | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
'didn't put Willie Burrell off.' It's a treasure trove. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
'We don't know quite where his passion for paintings came from, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
'but Glasgow in the 1880s wasn't a bad place to start.' | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
Burrell was excited by a group of contemporary artists | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
known as the Glasgow Boys | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
whose work he could buy on his doorstep. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:42 | |
Burrell's favourite was Joseph Crawhall. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:46 | |
One of the best things about this is you get the sense of speed, | 0:07:52 | 0:07:56 | |
because the dachshund's ears are flying, the feet are going,... | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
-Yes, she is not remotely steady on the bicycle. -No. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
She looks like she's wobbling and it's so delicate, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
just these little touches of colour. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:06 | |
And again, in this one, you get the real sense of excitement | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
and of the huge hindquarters of this racing horse, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:13 | |
and this splash which is the tail up. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
Yes. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:17 | |
Burrell's passion for Crawhall's work would last a lifetime. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:28 | |
But he was also starting to collect artists of international renown, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
like James McNeill Whistler. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
We have quite a number of lovely Whistler drawings and prints | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
in the collection and this is one of two pastels that we have. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:47 | |
And clearly, he loved works on paper, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
he loved pastels and he loved colour. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
I mean, would part of the reason | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
that he did concentrate on pastels sometimes | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
and works on paper is that they tend to be cheaper than the oils? | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
-Well, there is that, too. -He was canny. -Yes, he was canny. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
Um, because he's definitely buying things quite early on | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
that are not expensive, he's not buying, on the whole, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
the larger oil paintings that are going to be more expensive. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
-But what about Whistler oils? -Well, Whistler's still relatively cheap. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
-He's buying early on, so... -Does he have any Whistler oils as well? | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
Yeah, yeah. So the value is not rocketing. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
William Burrell bought two impressive oil paintings | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
by Whistler, spending £1500 on The Fur Jacket alone, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:36 | |
but sold them both just a few years later. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
'Luckily for us, Burrell didn't sell all his Whistlers.' | 0:09:41 | 0:09:46 | |
Oh, my goodness. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
It's one of Westminster. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:49 | |
KIRSTY GASPS | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
You can just make out the lights along the far bank. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
And the factory chimneys, but just...just and no more. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
And what I like about this is many artists at the time | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
were doing narrative paintings, paintings that have a story, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
well, this is something that is invoking a mood, | 0:10:10 | 0:10:13 | |
and what I love is the fact that Burrell obviously cared about that. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:17 | |
I can't believe this is down in the store. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
I can't believe this is down in the store! | 0:10:22 | 0:10:24 | |
Yeah, we should have this one on display. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
It's a really wonderful nocturne. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
I'm very glad he didn't sell this. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
Burrell was not only buying and selling paintings, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
he was also commissioning new works. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
He asked Glasgow Boy, John Lavery, to paint his youngest sister, Mary. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:47 | |
This must be one of the most beautiful, | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
elegant portraits in the collection. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
She's very elegant, isn't she? | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
William Burrell preferred to stay out of the limelight, | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
but he was happy to show off the families growing wealth | 0:11:00 | 0:11:06 | |
with this arresting portrait. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:08 | |
What this says to me is, this is my sister, | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
I want Lavery to paint her, and I want to show her off to the world. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
William Burrell's world had changed immeasurably. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
By the 1890s, he was at the helm of the family business, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
and business was booming. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
Burrell & Sons ships were now carrying cargo | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
to ever farther flung reaches of the globe. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
And as his company and his bank balance grew, | 0:11:45 | 0:11:49 | |
so did Burrell's infatuation with buying art. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
Letters written by Burrell's best friend, Robert Lorimer, | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
offer a rare eyewitness account of his activities. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
"He travels pretty well all over Europe two or three times a year, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
"visiting the regions. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
"He is 36, he possesses 17 Matthew Maris's, two Whistlers, | 0:12:07 | 0:12:13 | |
"God knows what else. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:15 | |
"Really he has very fine taste. God knows where he got it." | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
Burrell headed to the continent | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
to make his first purchases of European art, | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
where the bargaining techniques he'd picked up | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
in the cutthroat world of global shipping served him very well indeed. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
"That man's a perfect nailer. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
"To see him tackling some of these dealers was a treat | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
"and in many ways I learned a lot from him." | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
The generation that Burrell belonged to were a bit more daring | 0:12:44 | 0:12:47 | |
in their purchases, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
and they were interested in buying modern, European art. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
And I think that's probably | 0:12:53 | 0:12:54 | |
because they were perhaps more international in their outlook. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
And if you think about the businesses that they ran... | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
-And they travelled. -They travelled. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
And Burrell was sending ships off here, there and everywhere. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
And so they had a more international outlook. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
'Burrell was also buying top quality French | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
'and Dutch art from a handful of dealers in Glasgow.' | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
So the Burrell's got at least as many Degas | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
-as any other collection in the United Kingdom? -Yes. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
'And through them, some of the best modern art | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
'in the world found its way into William Burrell's hands. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
'The collector fell for the work of a living French artist | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
'who was helping to change the face of Western art. Edgar Degas.' | 0:13:33 | 0:13:38 | |
This is one of Degas' most important paintings. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:44 | |
And it's certainly one of the best of his works that Burrell purchased. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
The man that we're seeing here, Duranty, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:52 | |
was an art critic and novelist, and a close friend of Degas. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
And in 1876 Duranty wrote a pamphlet | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
called The New Painting. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
And what he was saying was, when you're doing a portrait, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
show them in their own environment and tell us something about them. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:13 | |
In other words, you can look at that portrait | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
and you know without knowing what this man actually did - | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
a writer, completely surrounded by his books and pamphlets. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
So this was the whole idea, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:25 | |
-this idea of modernity showing real life in art. -Absolutely. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:29 | |
And Burrell loved Degas, but one of the artists he also loved, | 0:14:29 | 0:14:34 | |
from a modern point of view, was Manet. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:38 | |
And this was exhibited in 1880 at an exhibition called La Vie Moderne. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:43 | |
These voyeuristic snapshots of everyday life | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
in Parisian streets and cafes, | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
and behind-the-scenes at the ballet, | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
were new and daring, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:07 | |
far beyond the posed portraits that had come before. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
I absolutely love this, because instead of the male gaze, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:17 | |
this is a woman with field glasses | 0:15:17 | 0:15:19 | |
looking straight at Degas as he paints her. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
So she sees him in close-up. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
So why do you think he bought something like this? | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
This is extraordinary, so striking. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
Well, as far as we know, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:30 | |
this is one of the very first works that he buys. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
We know he had this by 1902. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:37 | |
It would seem to me that because he was buying it early, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
that without realising it, he was collecting something | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
that was actually almost subversive and certainly quite provocative. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
By good judgement and luck, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:54 | |
William Burrell amassed no fewer than 22 works by the artist, | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
building up the largest and finest collection of Degas | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
anywhere in the UK. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:04 | |
Why was Glasgow such a vibrant scene for art | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
at the end of the 1800s? | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
Well, I think it's a combination of three things - | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
first of all, there was a lot of money around, | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
and that's very important for artists | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
because there were people to support them, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
the second thing is that there were these dealers, | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
these art agents, who were able to act as an interface | 0:16:34 | 0:16:38 | |
between the artist and the collector, | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
and of course, the third thing is that there were these men | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
who were very anxious to buy paintings. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
'Burrell's new-found wealth made him a leading player in this art market.' | 0:16:57 | 0:17:02 | |
Was he, do you think, from an early age, a very astute businessman? | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
Very. Absolutely ruthless in his ship owning. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:11 | |
Because he used to wait until the shipyards were crying out for work | 0:17:11 | 0:17:16 | |
and he'd order a whole lot of ships at once and get them very cheap. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
And then he used to sell when there was a boom. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
And this is how he made money. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
Between 1898 and 1900, just two years, | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
as demand for ships peaked and prices rose, Burrell sold his entire fleet. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:38 | |
His bold strategy reaped him huge financial rewards. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:44 | |
By the turn-of-the-century, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
Burrell's business acumen had amassed him his first fortune. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
Now he could step back from shipping | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
and concentrate on building his collection. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
And that moment coincided with one of the most fabulous events | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
in Glasgow's cultural history - | 0:17:58 | 0:18:00 | |
the 1901 International Exhibition here in Kelvingrove Park - | 0:18:00 | 0:18:05 | |
and Burrell put himself at the heart of it. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
He had been collecting for more than 20 years, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:18 | |
but Burrell had never put his impressive collection | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
on public display. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:23 | |
Now the time was right as people flocked to the Glasgow Exhibition | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
from all over the country to see the latest advances | 0:18:28 | 0:18:32 | |
in industry and in art. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
And when he lent the exhibition more than 200 works, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
Willie Burrell announced himself as an international collector of note. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
It's the first time | 0:18:45 | 0:18:46 | |
you've got a real picture of the breadth of his collection. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
He has some Manets and also he has some Glasgow items. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
But the surprise is, with the mediaeval items. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
There were tapestries there. How he acquired them, nobody knows. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
So it's the breadth of the collection | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
that's really interesting. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
-Burrell had an international ambition, didn't he? -Yes, he did. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:08 | |
And I think, really, the people he was looking at... | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
..were the Americans. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:14 | |
And they're the big collectors, you got the Rockefellers, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
you've got JP Morgan, and Frick, | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
and then latterly of course, Randolph Hearst. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
In the middle of the 19th century, some of the richest men in America | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
began spending unimaginable fortunes on art and antiquities. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
Coke and steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
bought many of Europe's finest old masters. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
And later, newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
bought everything from Greek vases to Spanish furniture. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
They wanted to furnish their grand mansions | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
and castles as a mark of their status. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
In a sense, Burrell belongs to that kind of... | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
..what we rather unkindly call the robber barons, | 0:19:59 | 0:20:01 | |
but those people who are really self-made people coming up | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
and buying collections, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:05 | |
forming their identity with these great collections. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
All these industrialists were also showing that they were cultured too. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
-It wasn't just about blood and guts and steel. -Oh, absolutely not. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
I think that's absolutely right. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
This was collecting of a high order. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
We don't know exactly where Burrell started collecting mediaeval art. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:32 | |
He may have picked up his taste on family holidays to Holland | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
and France, perhaps encouraged by his mother, | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
who also fancied herself a collector. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
But over six decades, Burrell assembled one of the finest | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
collections of Northern European, mediaeval, Gothic, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
and early Renaissance art ever amassed by one man. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
Here. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
There's no space to do that | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
otherwise I would go in the middle now. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
These 14th century stained-glass panels from a Carmelite monastery | 0:21:03 | 0:21:07 | |
in Boppard on Rhine in Germany survived iconoclasm | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
and the Napoleonic wars and are also | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
some of the most beautiful glass Burrell collected. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
They have been up on display since the museum opened | 0:21:16 | 0:21:20 | |
and now need to come down for conservation. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:24 | |
There is always an unknown quantity to it. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
Until you have done it, you never know. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
We always have a contingency plan. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:31 | |
What is the worst that could happen? | 0:21:31 | 0:21:33 | |
I suppose the worst that could happen would be | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
that it slips and falls. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
OK, I have got hold of this. It is coming down. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
It will be really exciting to see them in the workshop | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
and start exploring what went on with them | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
before they went on display here at the Burrell. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
In a lifetime of collecting, William Burrell | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
steadily put together one of the finest | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
and most comprehensive collections of stained glass in the world. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:06 | |
What were some of his best bargains? | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
The Fawsley Hall glass, this wonderful series of heraldic panels, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
early 16th century, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
one family from an early 16th century house in Northamptonshire. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
He pursues them long and hard, from before the war | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
until after the war, and gets them really quite cheaply. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
And things like the prophet Jeremiah, from St Denis, | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
which he paid £114 for. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | |
It is from the first Gothic church, built by Abbot Suger, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:40 | |
this great figure in 12th century French society. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
And it is one of the windows there. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
And of course, at the time, nobody knew it came from there. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
So that was an amazing bargain. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
You can point to the collection and find all sorts of things | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
he actually bought really rather well. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
William Burrell taught himself about every aspect of his collection. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
And as his knowledge and his contacts book grew, | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
he was able to buy better and better. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
He started with a very curious mind as a child, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
and he never stopped. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
He was always asking dealers, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
and finding out about different things, and he was really interested | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
in their provenance, and where they come from, what they meant. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:23 | |
Burrell sought out a handful | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
of exceptional objects with royal connections. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
One piece on display bore witness to a fateful night in English history. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
When I first came to the Burrell Collection it was down in the store. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
I found it and I looked at it and I thought, "What is this?!" | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
And it turns out to be the matrimonial bedhead that was | 0:23:52 | 0:23:57 | |
made for the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
-So they would have slept in this on their wedding night? -Yes. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
It is political and also slightly erotic. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
-So it is a rare combination, shall we say... -Interesting combination. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:13 | |
So in the centre we have got an inscription that actually | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
states exactly who Henry is. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
King of England, and of France, Lord of Ireland, | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
and the Chief and Supreme Head of the Church of All England. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:28 | |
-So that is the political bit. -That is the political bit. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
What is the erotic bit? | 0:24:32 | 0:24:33 | |
Well, the carving, we have got a grown-up woman on this side | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
and the man on your side. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
A very prominent codpiece. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
A very prominent codpiece. Which was fashionable at the time. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:46 | |
He is holding a large fruit, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
emphasising the fruitfulness of the union. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
And on this side, we have got a very fashionably dressed lady. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:57 | |
In one hand, the serpent, or the snake, and then the other, | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
her right hand, she is holding an upturned sword. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
So as I usually say to the guides here, interpret as desired! | 0:25:03 | 0:25:08 | |
-So that of course is the idea... -The idea of virility. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
And this is not of course a rendition of Anne of Cleves, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
she was a rather not very attractive person. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
Well, some of the stories are that they played cards all night. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
We don't know if that is true. We will never know. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
Only the bedhead knows. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:23 | |
And I find that really exciting, | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
that this bedhead was actually there on that night. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
With objects like the king's bedhead, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
Burrell bought his own piece of royal history. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
But he was just as interested in precious things | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
used by ordinary people. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:42 | |
These carvings are some of the few remaining examples | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
of a lost mediaeval craft form, | 0:25:49 | 0:25:51 | |
that had miraculously survived the Reformation. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
Religious sculptures like these | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
serve to remind illiterate churchgoers of the Bible stories, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
and were carved from English alabaster in the 14th century. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
Burrell also got his hands on some even rarer alabasters | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
designed as prayer objects for the home. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
There are others, and other museums, but this is something that | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
-most museums in the world would give anything for. -Yes. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:31 | |
This is the head of St John the Baptist, after he was beheaded, | 0:26:31 | 0:26:36 | |
being carried on a platter. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
At the top, we have got the soul being carried to heaven by angels. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:42 | |
Below, the resurrecting Christ, coming out of the tomb. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:49 | |
So it is a very Catholic image and, after the Reformation, | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
it would be very dangerous indeed | 0:26:53 | 0:26:54 | |
to be found with something like this in your home. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:58 | |
Burrell collected a royal flush of mediaeval artefacts. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
From precious glass, to sculpture and textiles, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
and intricately woven tapestries, | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
which had always conferred status in society. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
Perhaps that was why Burrell liked these best of all. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
Yes, he actually says in some of his correspondence | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
that he thinks tapestries | 0:27:21 | 0:27:22 | |
are possibly the most important part of his collection, in his own view. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:27 | |
This is an allegory, charity overcoming envy. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
So, charity being a virtue is attacking envy, | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
who is one of the vices. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
-Obviously managing very well. -She is, managing very well. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
She is holding a sword and she is just about to strike him down. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:47 | |
This tapestry is about 500 years old and was made in the area | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
nowadays called the southern Netherlands. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
One of the most important tapestry weaving centres | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
of the known world at that time. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
Burrell collected more than 200 important tapestries. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:16 | |
Ranging from the allegorical to the heraldic. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:21 | |
And the playful. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
I really don't know where to begin with this tapestry. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
There is just so much to see and it just looks so glorious. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:35 | |
Yes, and it is actually one of our favourites. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:37 | |
Especially for school parties that come in, | 0:28:37 | 0:28:40 | |
they absolutely love this tapestry. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
This is called "Preparing To Hunt Rabbits With Ferrets". | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
Is it meant to be fun? Are you meant to be looking for things? | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
Because I am seeing things all the time | 0:28:48 | 0:28:50 | |
that I perhaps didn't see two or three minutes ago. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
I think it is meant to be fun. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:54 | |
It is actually one of three tapestries | 0:28:54 | 0:28:57 | |
from the same kind of series. | 0:28:57 | 0:28:59 | |
The other two are in San Francisco and the Louvre in Paris. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:04 | |
Although it looks quite simple, to tapestry connoisseurs | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
this is actually the height of tapestry design. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
And that is because the figures are actually jigsawed together | 0:29:12 | 0:29:14 | |
to fill the whole space. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
I am sure that sitting her there are lots of things I haven't seen yet. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:20 | |
As well as rabbit holes you have this strange looking bear. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:24 | |
Yes, he had a good eye for tapestries. He knew what he wanted. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:29 | |
As I say, to connoisseurs it is very special. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:32 | |
What do you think sparks Burrell's love of mediaeval art? | 0:29:35 | 0:29:39 | |
It is certainly not for the religious input. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:43 | |
I think the tapestries by and large show that. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
But again it is really sort of Gothic that he is really keen on. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:51 | |
And probably the reason is that he likes the kind of objects, | 0:29:51 | 0:29:56 | |
initially anyway, which would furnish | 0:29:56 | 0:29:59 | |
the kind of house he wants to be in. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:01 | |
It may be partly an aspiration to kind of have a baronial style, | 0:30:01 | 0:30:06 | |
which you see from this sort of genuine, old houses. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:11 | |
That is what I think he likes. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
And I think initially it is a furnishing thing. | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
Burrell was eager to settle down. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:24 | |
He found a suitable wife in Constance Mitchell | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
who was also from a Glasgow shipping family. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:30 | |
And the newlyweds moved into a smart townhouse in Glasgow's West End. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:36 | |
He called on his friend | 0:30:36 | 0:30:37 | |
and architect Robert Lorimer to refashion the interiors. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:42 | |
'I have at last gotten to enthuse a bit over his house. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:45 | |
'Seeing his Gothic tapestries hung up in his dining room | 0:30:45 | 0:30:49 | |
'is what did it. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:50 | |
'His dining room is now to be tapestry all-around. | 0:30:50 | 0:30:53 | |
'The three Gothic hunting scenes he had in the Glasgow exhibition | 0:30:53 | 0:30:56 | |
'just fill one side. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:57 | |
'And he is going to have a trip round the continent in the spring | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
'to try to find some more.' | 0:31:00 | 0:31:02 | |
Soon the house was ready and a baby was on the way. | 0:31:02 | 0:31:06 | |
William had grand family plans. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:10 | |
He wanted to father a dynasty of Burrells. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:14 | |
And the first thing he did, he was delighted, he rushed out, | 0:31:14 | 0:31:17 | |
and he got Lorimer to make him a beautiful cradle for the baby. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:21 | |
I do not know how much Constance had to do with it, | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
but they went absolutely overboard. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
And the child duly arrived. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
But in those days all births of course took place in the home | 0:31:28 | 0:31:31 | |
and it turned out that that was a very difficult birth and it was | 0:31:31 | 0:31:36 | |
not the son and heir that they were hoping for, it was a daughter. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:39 | |
The Burrells named their daughter Marion. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:46 | |
But Constance was warned that having another baby would endanger her life. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:52 | |
William was forced to give up the idea of fathering a dynasty. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:56 | |
And with his ambitions for a male heir thwarted, | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
he threw himself wholeheartedly into his obsession for collecting. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:04 | |
Astonishingly, for the first 50 years of his life, | 0:32:13 | 0:32:16 | |
Burrell kept no records of his purchases. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
But as the collection grew, | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
he realised he needed to keep track of it. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:23 | |
From 1911 until he died almost 50 years later, he hand-wrote | 0:32:25 | 0:32:30 | |
a record of almost every object he bought in one of these 28 notebooks. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:34 | |
-And this is what, just a jotter? -Just a school exercise book. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:42 | |
-That is what he used. -All in order, all in order. -That's right. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:46 | |
1911 to 1914. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:48 | |
Yes, it gives you the date bought, | 0:32:48 | 0:32:51 | |
from whom he has bought it, a description. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:54 | |
-It is the meticulous work of a businessman. -Very much so. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
If you look at another page, we have got sketches of the things he saw. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
So this is Burrell actually drawing his purchases? Himself! | 0:33:02 | 0:33:06 | |
Yes, of course, 1911, catalogues did not have photographs, | 0:33:06 | 0:33:12 | |
so there is nothing to remind you, you have to do sketches, | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
have something that reminds you of what you are looking at. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:18 | |
And of course he buys this piece | 0:33:18 | 0:33:20 | |
and it is a pretty good drawing, actually. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
So beautifully done, as if he is doing some kind of lecture, | 0:33:23 | 0:33:26 | |
writing up a lecture. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:28 | |
That's right. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:29 | |
I think that's amazing, that he does that. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:31 | |
He may be amassing a collection, | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
but he does not have lots of assistants and staff. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:36 | |
-He is doing it himself. -That is right. A very personal thing. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:40 | |
And that is the nice thing about Burrell. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:43 | |
Many collectors as rich as he was would buy mountains of stuff, | 0:33:43 | 0:33:49 | |
-probably not even seeing what they were buying. -He saw everything. | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
-He saw everything. -And it is completely the opposite | 0:33:52 | 0:33:55 | |
of what the mythology is about Burrell, | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
that he was this magpie who bought everything, | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
that it was indiscriminate. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:00 | |
-Burrell's passion is here in his pencil. -Yes. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
Burrell's latest passion was for ancient Chinese artefacts. | 0:34:08 | 0:34:12 | |
1911 was the year he started his purchase books, | 0:34:12 | 0:34:16 | |
but also a key date in Chinese history. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
When the imperial dynasty fell, China started to fragment, | 0:34:19 | 0:34:24 | |
and the noble families sold off their collections, | 0:34:24 | 0:34:27 | |
allowing Western collectors to acquire Chinese art. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
I think this case probably has some of the best ceramics | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
in the Burrell collection. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
14th century. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:44 | |
-Translucent, it is beautiful. -Absolutely. 14th century porcelain. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:49 | |
Underglazed copper oxide. Very experimental. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
It is a very difficult oxide to fire correctly. | 0:34:52 | 0:34:56 | |
Burrell was collecting this, was he, for the sheer beauty of it? | 0:34:56 | 0:34:59 | |
Or because he knew it was valuable? What was the impetus? | 0:34:59 | 0:35:04 | |
Again we have to pick up the clues. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:07 | |
He had a very sort of personal connection with his objects. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
Everything he bought, he looked at, he chose, and he had a very good eye. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:15 | |
The quality of its manufacture. He was interested in how things were made. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:19 | |
-How things are... yes. -And the quality of craftsmanship and it's perfect condition. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
-And it's perfect. -Perfect condition. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
This is a fantastic example of an eighth-century burial figure | 0:35:33 | 0:35:39 | |
and objects like this were made specifically as tomb artefacts. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
They were there to serve the dead, not the living. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
So I think what amazed Western collectors was the fact that | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
you had so much detail and so much vitality within what were really | 0:35:50 | 0:35:54 | |
things that would never be seen once they were buried. | 0:35:54 | 0:35:57 | |
And in terms of Chinese collectors, these would have been taboo. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:03 | |
So when these were discovered in the 1910s, '20s and '30s, | 0:36:03 | 0:36:08 | |
from excavated tombs, they were of fascination to Western collectors, | 0:36:08 | 0:36:12 | |
I think primarily because they hadn't seen anything like this before. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:17 | |
But obviously it very much followed the Western sculptural tradition. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
Burrell collected more than 1,200 ceramics, bronzes and jades. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:39 | |
With the Chinese collection spanning each and every dynasty, | 0:36:40 | 0:36:44 | |
he built up a true connoisseur's set. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
But there was something deeper | 0:36:50 | 0:36:51 | |
motivating Burrell's compulsive yet careful collecting. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:55 | |
Before William made his money as a ship owner, | 0:37:07 | 0:37:10 | |
commissioning and selling ships built here on the River Clyde, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:14 | |
and even before William's grandfather came to Scotland to try his luck on the waterways, | 0:37:14 | 0:37:20 | |
the Burrells were landed gentry | 0:37:20 | 0:37:22 | |
who kept royal company in their native Northumberland | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
until the family money was recklessly gambled away. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:29 | |
Willie Burrell loved stories | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
and the family were brought up on this tale | 0:37:33 | 0:37:36 | |
of how the family wealth had been lost | 0:37:36 | 0:37:38 | |
and I think this was a great impetus to Willie because first of all he wanted to... | 0:37:38 | 0:37:43 | |
regain the money which had been lost. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:47 | |
And later on, he hoped to regain the status. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:50 | |
Willie Burrell was determined to make the family name great once again. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:12 | |
He was a romantic. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:17 | |
We had a hard side and a soft side and he had a very romantic side. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:21 | |
He loved the stories of Walter Scott and history and pageantry and heraldry. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:27 | |
And he wanted a setting fitting for the things that he particularly enjoyed. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:33 | |
This extraordinary place is Hutton Castle. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:18 | |
William Burrell wanted the perfect home in which to put | 0:39:18 | 0:39:20 | |
his treasured hoard. This is it. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:23 | |
He spent 12 years redesigning it within an inch of its life | 0:39:23 | 0:39:27 | |
and finally, in 1927, he moved in with his wife Constance | 0:39:27 | 0:39:31 | |
and his daughter Marion. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
It was to be his home for the next 30 years. | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
John Pringle worked in Burrell's garden. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
The first time I came here was with the school. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:55 | |
When I was about 12 I used to come gardening | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
from half seven to 12 o'clock. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:01 | |
-On a Saturday? -On a Saturday. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
And did Sir William pay you for that? | 0:40:03 | 0:40:05 | |
Sixpence an hour. We got half a crown each. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:09 | |
-And did you see Sir William at that time or not? -At half nine he came out. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:14 | |
He stayed with us till dinner time, sitting on his shooting stick. | 0:40:14 | 0:40:18 | |
You saw how many of the different antiques he was putting in here. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
-What was it like? -Absolutely full of carpets. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:26 | |
All you could smell was mothballs. But he had everything. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:29 | |
He had weapons, furniture... I liked the suits of armour. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:34 | |
They were really great. There was one each side of the door. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:37 | |
-I always remember that. -They didn't live in that bit, though, did they? | 0:40:37 | 0:40:41 | |
No, no, they'd be more up here. This was chock-full of antiques. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
-Right. -It just looked like a museum. Absolutely beautiful. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:50 | |
Statues, some furniture but he had everything. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:54 | |
Burrell had great expectations of his castle. | 0:40:59 | 0:41:02 | |
And of his only daughter, Marion. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
He had her educated by French governesses | 0:41:05 | 0:41:08 | |
and enjoyed schooling her in the collection. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:11 | |
William and Connie took Marion on holidays | 0:41:11 | 0:41:13 | |
and buying trips to exotic locations. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:16 | |
Her father was very ambitious and autocratic. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:21 | |
When she was very young, | 0:41:21 | 0:41:22 | |
he saw her potential | 0:41:22 | 0:41:24 | |
and decided that he would mould her | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
in his own way. | 0:41:28 | 0:41:29 | |
Burrell wanted Marion to marry into the aristocracy | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
and when she came of age, he spent a fortune on presenting her | 0:41:35 | 0:41:39 | |
to the pick of the country's most eligible titled bachelors. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:44 | |
But the millionaire collector was suspicious | 0:41:44 | 0:41:46 | |
the suitors were after his money | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
and no one was good enough for Burrell's daughter. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:54 | |
She didn't know that her third engagement had been broken | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 | |
until she read it in her morning paper. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
Her father had put in a notice | 0:42:00 | 0:42:02 | |
without a word either to her or to her future husband. | 0:42:02 | 0:42:07 | |
And so she was absolutely blazing. She said, "Right, that's it. | 0:42:07 | 0:42:13 | |
"I will never marry." And she jolly well meant it. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:17 | |
William's grand plans for Marion had failed. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:24 | |
And her relationship with her parents never fully recovered. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:28 | |
Connie, it seems, | 0:42:29 | 0:42:31 | |
couldn't forgive her daughter for the traumatic birth she had endured | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
but without a husband or a decent allowance, Marion was bound to her parents. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:40 | |
Did you ever hear her speaking ill of her parents, though? | 0:42:43 | 0:42:46 | |
She once said to me in the boiler house... | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
she was nearly in tears, you know. "Mum has never loved me." | 0:42:52 | 0:42:57 | |
I always remember that. | 0:42:57 | 0:42:59 | |
That's one of the last times I spoke to her at Hutton Castle. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
Today, Hutton Castle is in private hands and is not open to the public. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:13 | |
But little remains here of the interiors Burrell went to | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
so much trouble and expense to create. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:20 | |
After his death, the castle was stripped of its fixtures and fittings. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
But we can get a glimpse of how he lived from the three rooms | 0:43:24 | 0:43:27 | |
that have been painstakingly recreated at the Burrell Collection. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:32 | |
So are these the proportions of the room as it was in Hutton? | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
-Yes, they're as near as they could possibly be. -Height as well? | 0:43:35 | 0:43:39 | |
Yes, everything. Originally, he'd actually said that | 0:43:39 | 0:43:42 | |
he would have liked up to 12 of the rooms from Hutton Castle to be | 0:43:42 | 0:43:46 | |
produced in the museum, which would have included bedrooms as well. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:49 | |
So this would be incredibly fashionable | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
-for a kind of magnate to have a place like this with the room like this. -Yes. | 0:43:52 | 0:43:58 | |
I mean, William Randolph Hearst, his homes were like this but larger. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:03 | |
-And the stained glass, presumably she had saved that stained glass up for Hutton. -Yes. | 0:44:03 | 0:44:09 | |
Unfortunately, there was too much to have on display in Hutton, | 0:44:09 | 0:44:13 | |
even though Hutton was huge. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:14 | |
I suppose it enlivens the room, you know. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:17 | |
They were literally showrooms. They were kept locked most of the time. | 0:44:17 | 0:44:21 | |
They were where he put the stars of his collection | 0:44:21 | 0:44:25 | |
and important visitors would be brought in and shown around. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:29 | |
But I don't think that the family would have come in | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
and sat around the fire. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:34 | |
No. Or skited along the table. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:36 | |
Owning Hutton Castle gave Burrell the chance | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
to buy on a far grander scale than before. | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
Even in the museum, some objects are so big and delicate | 0:44:48 | 0:44:52 | |
that they can't be kept on permanent display. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:54 | |
So it's a real treat for me to get a rare viewing | 0:44:55 | 0:44:58 | |
of an item that really is a one-off. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:01 | |
It looks so unprepossessing. It's a bit of gingham at the moment. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:06 | |
-I feel there is something... -You will not be disappointed! | 0:45:06 | 0:45:10 | |
-It is a beautiful thing to see. -Nothing else like it in here? | 0:45:10 | 0:45:15 | |
No, not only in here, anywhere. | 0:45:15 | 0:45:17 | |
The pattern of this carpet was never repeated. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
It is an absolutely unique object. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:22 | |
Can you line it up against... | 0:45:22 | 0:45:24 | |
There are water channels being unravelled. | 0:45:30 | 0:45:34 | |
Fish and duck. In the water channels. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:39 | |
Lots of trees and flowers. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:41 | |
-There we are. Look at that. -Gosh! | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
So what are we actually seeing here? | 0:45:58 | 0:46:00 | |
This is the famous Wagner Garden Carpet. | 0:46:00 | 0:46:03 | |
It's a Persian carpet laid out as a walled garden. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:07 | |
The carpet makers and designers are trying to create a garden | 0:46:10 | 0:46:14 | |
that represents the earthly paradise | 0:46:14 | 0:46:17 | |
that is a mirror of the heavenly one. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:21 | |
It is obviously a thing of infinite beauty. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:23 | |
-Isn't it? Do you want to get closer? -How close can I get, though? | 0:46:23 | 0:46:27 | |
-If you take your shoes off you can go right up to the edge. -OK. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:31 | |
-So are we allowed to walk on the edge? -No, just on the tarpaulin. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:38 | |
But you can lean over if you like, it's an amazing object. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:42 | |
What are the main symbols that you would be | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
looking for in a carpet like this. What does it tell you? | 0:46:50 | 0:46:53 | |
If you sit just a metre in, you get this amazing panoramic feel | 0:46:53 | 0:46:58 | |
that you are in a garden, as opposed to on a garden. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:01 | |
All the trees in the outer... | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
-Follow a line. -Follow a line. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
As you get to the centre of the carpet, | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
the trees start to change direction. | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
-Look at these birds, they are beautiful. -Storks. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
We've got ducks up there flying. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
And you can see there are lots of little tiny repairs. | 0:47:21 | 0:47:25 | |
It is very rare to come across an early 17th century that has no | 0:47:25 | 0:47:30 | |
repairs at all. That means it was never used. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:33 | |
There is a lot of quirky humour in it, | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
in the way they have depicted the animals and their relationships. | 0:47:37 | 0:47:41 | |
-There is a lot of fun. -I think my favourite is the little rabbits. | 0:47:41 | 0:47:44 | |
The rabbits, yes. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:46 | |
Burrell gave this beautiful piece pride of place in the drawing room | 0:47:51 | 0:47:54 | |
of Hutton Castle. | 0:47:54 | 0:47:56 | |
It is just one of over 400 Persian | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
and Islamic artefacts that he amassed. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
Well, of course, in addition to the carpets, the other Islamic textiles | 0:48:11 | 0:48:15 | |
that Burrell lived with are these suzanis. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
They are wall-hangings. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:20 | |
Burrell used them as bedspreads. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:24 | |
-What, at Hutton Castle? -Yes. | 0:48:24 | 0:48:26 | |
It is extraordinary because at the moment, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:28 | |
suzanis are incredibly popular. Designers use them all the time. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
But they are factory made. But this is a different thing. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
Very different. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:36 | |
These are made by women at home. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:38 | |
The traditions starts in the mid-18th century of producing suzanis | 0:48:38 | 0:48:43 | |
as dowry pieces. So it is loaded with symbolism and beauty. | 0:48:43 | 0:48:48 | |
So that she shows off in her new marital home how important she was | 0:48:48 | 0:48:53 | |
and loved by her family. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:55 | |
The tulip is very important in Turkish life. | 0:48:57 | 0:49:01 | |
The tulip represents God. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:04 | |
At the very top roundel, | 0:49:04 | 0:49:05 | |
can you see the serrated leaves that project out from the centre? | 0:49:05 | 0:49:10 | |
These represent kitchen knives disguised here! | 0:49:10 | 0:49:15 | |
Kitchen knives are very useful as a domestic tool and for protection. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:20 | |
So you can see the beliefs being loaded onto this beautiful suzani. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:25 | |
And of course, they invested a lifetime's effort in producing them. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:31 | |
This is one of the ones that was bought in London in May 1925. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:36 | |
And this was all because he wanted to cover the beds at Hutton Castle? | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
He understood them to be a bedspread. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
So I think he would be even more pleased to discover the whole story | 0:49:41 | 0:49:45 | |
behind them. They are actually wall hangings, | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
to decorate the interior walls of the bride's room in her new marital home. | 0:49:48 | 0:49:55 | |
Burrell was king of his castle, surrounded by his treasures. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:11 | |
Soon the castle was full, | 0:50:11 | 0:50:13 | |
packed to the gunwales with stained glass, carpets and furniture. | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
But Sir William kept on going. Perhaps by now he was obsessed. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:21 | |
A grand old man who still loved the thrill of the chase. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:25 | |
But as he entered his 70s, Burrell began to worry about what | 0:50:29 | 0:50:33 | |
would happen to his lifetime's work after his death. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:37 | |
Alive, Burrell was curator of his own collection, | 0:50:38 | 0:50:42 | |
but without him, who would save his precious hoard from being disbursed? | 0:50:42 | 0:50:46 | |
His relationship with his only child was in tatters. | 0:50:47 | 0:50:50 | |
To his mind, Burrell effectively had no heir. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:54 | |
He realised the only way to keep the collection together | 0:50:55 | 0:50:59 | |
and secure his lasting reputation was to gift it to the public. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:04 | |
Eventually, he decided to give the entire collection to Glasgow, | 0:51:04 | 0:51:08 | |
the city that made his fortune. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:10 | |
And now Burrell's collection was bound for public display, he started | 0:51:12 | 0:51:17 | |
to buy spectacular objects that would impress visitors to a museum. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:21 | |
Perhaps one of the most famous items in the Burrell collection... | 0:51:22 | 0:51:26 | |
-Certainly one of the most popular, apparently. -Absolutely. | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
He is sitting out, he is highly glazed, is that why | 0:51:29 | 0:51:32 | |
he can sit out and there's not a worry if somebody touches him? | 0:51:32 | 0:51:35 | |
Absolutely, but of course you should never touch items. | 0:51:35 | 0:51:39 | |
Ceramics are very robust. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:41 | |
The only problem is when you drop them. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:44 | |
But otherwise, they'll put up with temperature changes, | 0:51:44 | 0:51:47 | |
they'll put up with sunlight and they will put up with people | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
-touching them because that glaze is very robust. -When does he buy this? | 0:51:50 | 0:51:55 | |
Burrell buys this in December 1943. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
It is really on the cusp of his gifting the collection to the | 0:51:58 | 0:52:03 | |
-city of Glasgow. -This is the signal that he is no longer domestic? | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
That is right. He's moving from being a private collector to collecting for a museum. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:12 | |
We are looking at larger scale objects, | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
things that will now form part of a national collection. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:19 | |
So how many pieces in all, are in Burrell's china...? | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
Now Burrell had even grander plans for his collection. | 0:52:26 | 0:52:30 | |
He wanted to tell the full story of civilisation | 0:52:30 | 0:52:33 | |
and so in the last ten years of his life, he tried to fill | 0:52:33 | 0:52:36 | |
in the gaps with works from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:40 | |
But as well as being a completist Burrell was also an opportunist. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:48 | |
When more extravagant collectors such as William Randolph Hearst | 0:52:48 | 0:52:52 | |
were forced to sell off large portions of their hoards | 0:52:52 | 0:52:55 | |
in the Depression in the 1930s, the more cautious Burrell | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
was ready to buy. | 0:52:58 | 0:52:59 | |
What I love about the Burrell is you have these series of lovely, | 0:53:00 | 0:53:04 | |
-welcoming doors. -Absolutely. -Each one, different. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:10 | |
This one is just amazing. It still seems to me jaw dropping. | 0:53:10 | 0:53:16 | |
Well, they are not just threshold points, are they? | 0:53:16 | 0:53:21 | |
They are sort of entrance and egress points. | 0:53:21 | 0:53:23 | |
Here, this is a classic example of an English 16th century castle | 0:53:23 | 0:53:27 | |
entrance which was meant to impress. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:29 | |
-It comes from Hornby Castle in Yorkshire. -Where did he get it? | 0:53:29 | 0:53:33 | |
He got it from Randolph Hearst's collection. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:35 | |
It was part of a job lot of stonework, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:37 | |
incorporating some great Xanadu, one of the great Hearstian buildings. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:41 | |
But of course, Hearst's empire collapsed so it all | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
came on the market and Burrell bought the whole collection for £600. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:48 | |
He bought this one on its own for £150, | 0:53:48 | 0:53:52 | |
a fraction of what Hearst must have paid for it. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:54 | |
An absolute fraction. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:57 | |
And Burrell eventually wanted this to be incorporated in whatever | 0:53:57 | 0:54:01 | |
-building housed the Burrell? -Absolutely, absolutely. | 0:54:01 | 0:54:04 | |
It is a kind of triumphant frontispiece to the collection. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:07 | |
A combination of object, landscape, architecture. It is perfect. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
The architectural stonework Burrell snapped up from Hearst's sale, | 0:54:21 | 0:54:26 | |
now forms one of the most arresting features of the collection. | 0:54:26 | 0:54:30 | |
He had the foresight to buy for the very fabric of a building | 0:54:30 | 0:54:34 | |
he would never see. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:36 | |
And Burrell kept on buying until the very end. | 0:54:40 | 0:54:43 | |
This is a very poignant document | 0:54:46 | 0:54:48 | |
because this is the last of Burrell's purchase books. | 0:54:48 | 0:54:51 | |
It is from 1955 to 1957. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:55 | |
Gosh, you can see his annotations of his sums of money. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:59 | |
-His running totals, yes. -Still. In 1955 he was 95? -Yes. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:05 | |
-It still reads like a ledger book. -Greco-Egyptian statuette. | 0:55:05 | 0:55:09 | |
-Gosh, he is buying a lot of Egyptian stuff. -He is. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:13 | |
He is filling out the collection at this stage. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:15 | |
Henry VIII oak games table from Sotheby's, via Partridge and Sons. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:20 | |
That reads like a catalogue entry. | 0:55:20 | 0:55:22 | |
I think he was quite keen to get the accurate descriptions in. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
Look at this. Gosh, this are his final entries. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:32 | |
-You can see the writing has all changed. -Yes, yes. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:38 | |
This is the end of a life of collecting. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
But the mind is as sharp as ever to the end. | 0:55:44 | 0:55:48 | |
There is an interesting comment said by Murray Adams-Acton, | 0:55:48 | 0:55:53 | |
one of his agents, who wrote this letter saying, | 0:55:53 | 0:55:56 | |
"I have heard he has stopped collecting. | 0:55:56 | 0:55:59 | |
"Well, if so, he hasn't done too badly." | 0:55:59 | 0:56:02 | |
And I think that is a pretty good epitaph. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:04 | |
-Burrell would have liked that. -I think he would have done. | 0:56:04 | 0:56:08 | |
William Burrell died at Hutton Castle in 1958. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:15 | |
He had lived for almost 100 years and amassed a huge | 0:56:15 | 0:56:20 | |
and extraordinary collection, | 0:56:20 | 0:56:22 | |
without inherited money or the vast fortune of a Hearst or a Frick. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:27 | |
Burrell left it all to the people of Glasgow. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:40 | |
But the stipulations he imposed meant the collection did not | 0:56:41 | 0:56:45 | |
find a home of its own for decades. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:47 | |
It wasn't until 1983 that the Burrell Collection finally | 0:56:49 | 0:56:53 | |
opened its Tudor castle doors to the public. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
Because it is the collection of one man. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:02 | |
And I just love being able to see him reflected in the tapestries, | 0:57:03 | 0:57:09 | |
in the stained glass, the little jokey things that he liked. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
The Madonnas and church things that he liked. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
The human aspect of people working and people living | 0:57:15 | 0:57:20 | |
and this is what he cared about. | 0:57:20 | 0:57:22 | |
That's what I love about the collection. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:24 | |
Collecting was William Burrell's abiding passion | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
and the world was his oyster. | 0:57:41 | 0:57:43 | |
Like the American magnates such as Frick, | 0:57:43 | 0:57:45 | |
he saw his route to greatness being through art. | 0:57:45 | 0:57:48 | |
He did not want to be defined as a man who made his fortune by buying | 0:57:48 | 0:57:51 | |
and selling cargo ships, but rather as a man of culture and learning. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:55 | |
He may seem elusive because he never wrote about his artefacts. | 0:57:55 | 0:57:59 | |
Except he did, in his purchase books. And he is here. | 0:57:59 | 0:58:02 | |
This is his monument. | 0:58:02 | 0:58:04 | |
The collection was his gift to us | 0:58:04 | 0:58:07 | |
and there will never be another one like it. | 0:58:07 | 0:58:09 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:35 | 0:58:38 |