ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the main local and national factors which had a crucial bearing upon the inability of the avant-garde to consolidate its position in Glasgow. Commerce and heavy industry represented the mainstays of Glasgow’s economy at the close of the nineteenth century. In 1904 Horatio Bromhead of the Glasgow Institute of Architects articulated the argument that artistic-utilitarian synthesis in architecture was necessary for the avoidance of environmental disfigurement, but complained that such synthesis was not taking place in Glasgow. The 1888 Exhibition in Glasgow was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales, and Queen Victoria inaugurated the city chambers in the same year. Crane, in expressing the hostility of the contemporary Arts and Crafts fraternity, had overtly lampooned the ‘malady’ of Art Nouveau, and it is tempting to portray Newbery as being outraged at this on behalf of the Glasgow movement.
