The Smith Building
If the building was geographically disadvantaged, the lack of a living patron added to the problem. Thomas Stuart Smith had intended to supervise the construction personally. Many corners were cut in the construction, and it is evident from the idiosyncratic structure of the roof that the architect, John Lessels (1808–1883) of Edinburgh, had little direct input.
Most of the building material came from the Raploch Quarry on the northern side of the Castle escarpment, now the site of the Fire Station. Additional sandstone came from a quarry at Dunmore.
The frontage to Dumbarton Road has a tetra style (four pillared) Doric portico. The tympanum carries two relief carvings of the Stirling seal, the wolf on the left side and the Castle on the right. In the centre is a coat of arms purporting to be that of Thomas Stuart Smith, but the heraldic arrangement is unknown and has never been entered at the Court of the Lord Lyon. The inscription on the entablature below reads The Smith Institute, erected and endowed with funds bequeathed by Thomas Stuart Smith of Glassingall Perthshire. There are six steps to the front door. The wrought metal handrail by Phil Johnston of Ratho Byres Forge was added in 2000. At either side of the steps are two plinths for sculpture (at present with urns) and there is an empty sculpture niche on the right side of the building.
The frontage to Victoria Road and the Back Walk is 218 feet (66 m) in length and is broken by two gables having three-light Venetian windows which are surmounted by pediments. The pediments are inscribed with bronze lettering as follows: Erected 1873. Trustees George Christie, Provost of Stirling, J. W. Barty Dunblane, A. W. Cox Nottingham and John Lessels Edinburgh Architect.
The west side of the building has a blank wall with no windows, this being the architectural interpretation of the Trust Deed of having ‘space on either side for contingent additions’. The back or north wall has three access doors added in 1985-7 during the refurbishment of the building.
The Smith had residential accommodation for the curator, and this was occupied by a succession of staff until 1959. When the building was requisitioned by the army in 1914, the curator and his family remained in residence. A separate entrance to the curator’s house was created by the army through enlarging a window. This is now the staff entrance, and the former domestic premises are now offices.
There were five public areas to the Smith in 1874. On the left of the entrance was the Reading Room and Library. This was a substantial room measuring 50 by 28 feet (8.5 m), with an elaborate plasterwork scheme on the ceiling. The ceiling had three sections, each with 15 panels containing casts of the Stirling Heads, alternated with casts of the Arms of Stirling, the monogram of Thomas Stuart Smith and the date of the building. The woodwork was stained to look like oak, whilst the groundwork of each panel was in turquoise blue, the whole being enclosed in bands of soft red. The Library walls were in ‘drab Etruscan’ to harmonise with the ceiling.
When the Library moved to the new Carnegie building at the Corn Exchange in 1904, this became the natural history room. The plaster ceiling (by John Craigie of Stirling who had the contract for all the Smith plasterwork) was lost in the dry rot outbreak and removed in 1974. This room, renamed the Ballengeich Room or Gallery 1 was the first area of the Smith to be refurbished (1977). The room is at present used for temporary exhibitions and the Smith Café.
To the right of the entrance was the Small Museum, used for displaying the collection of original Stirling Heads and other Scottish antiquities. It was later used for ethnographical displays, and in 1984 was fitted out as the Lecture Room. It is used extensively by community groups and the large stained glass window from Springbank House was resited here in 2000, together with other stained glass panels and the original plasters by Albert Hemstock Hodge (1876–1918) for the Stirling Burns Monument.
The centre gallery, Gallery 2, was conceived as the watercolour gallery, and was top lit. It is now used for temporary exhibitions. The large gallery, Gallery 3 was the gallery for the oil paintings of the foundation collection and remained so until 1970. It was also top lit. At present, it houses the Stirling Story exhibition. In 1874 both of these galleries were painted dark marone with the coves in green.
The final area was the General Museum. On the east side of the building with its face to Stirling, it was lit by eight large windows and housed the museum collection. After the difficulties with the building encountered in the 1970s, this area became the storage area, and is no longer accessible to the public.
When the Smith first opened to the public, almost equal amounts space were devoted to the gallery and museum. There was no provision for workshop or storage space and the anticipated expansion on the 2-acre (8,100 m2) site did not happen. The pressing need for storage and workshop space has resulted in the loss of a third of the public area for that purpose and most of the fine art collection is at present confined to storage. The pressure for temporary exhibition space keeps Galleries 1 and 2 filled with constantly changing exhibitions, mainly by contemporary artists. The occupation of the Gallery 3, the largest exhibition space, with museum display is a temporary measure until new storage can be found and the splendour of this huge picture gallery restored to its original purpose.
The work of building the Smith was undertaken mainly by local contractors with a couple of exceptions. Sinclair of Edinburgh had the contract for the mason work, and the decoration was undertaken by Bonnar and Carfrae, also of Edinburgh, and one of the foremost in their field. The Bonnar family, tracing their lineage from John Bonnar who became a master painter in 1756, have had many talented artists in the family. One of them, John A. T. Bonnar, worked on the Smith contract and was resident in Stirling. A box painted with an intricate decorative scheme which belonged to him, but possibly executed by his older relative William Bonnar RSA (1800–1853) was presented to the Smith by his descendent, film-maker David Bonnar Thomson. The Smith was a constant source of inspiration for the young David sent by his art teacher, James Atterson, from the High School of Stirling down the Back Walk to study the paintings. The box represents one of several unbroken artistic threads which link the Smith to a family of artists through generations over a 130 year span.
Read more about this topic: Stirling Smith Museum And Art Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words smith and/or building:
“If we shake hands with icy fingers, it is because we’ve burnt them so hatefully before.”
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)
“The artist must be an egotist because, like the spider, he draws all his building material from his own breast. But just the same the artist alone among men knows what true humility means. His reach forever exceeds his grasp. He can never be satisfied with his work. He knows when he has done well, but he knows he has never attained his dream. He knows he never can.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)