Fine Art

The Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art was founded in 1880, the first Chair of its kind in the British Isles.

The chair was founded by Henry George Watson (1796–1879) and Frances Watson in memory of their brother, the late Sir John Watson Gordon (1788-1864), a renowned portrait-painter and President of the Royal Academy of Scotland. The chair was endowed with a sum of about £12,000, with instructions to the Professor to lecture 'on the History and Theory of the Fine Arts, including Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, and other branches of Art therewith connected'. From a wider perspective, the Chair's focus was 'the promotion and advancement of the fine arts, and prosecution of the studies of painting, sculpture and Architecture, and other branches therewith connected, in Scotland'.

Fine art as a subject for university study was in its infancy, and the first holder of the chair Gerard Baldwin Brown (1849-1932) thoroughly espoused the cause. In his fifty years in the post, he did much to enhances the discipline's academic profile. He is also remembered as a keen supporter of the cause of university education for women, lecturing extensively to the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women, and as a major benefactor to Edinburgh University Library through the gift of his personal book collection.

He was briefly succeeded by Sir Herbert Read Sir Herbert Read (1893-1968), before the Chair passed to David Talbot Rice (1903-1972) in 1934. Talbot Rice draw up a curriculum for the new Honours Degree in Fine Art in 1946, working in conjunction with Edinburgh College of Art. This exerted a national influence and remains at the core of art history teaching at the university. Other significant initiatives include Talbot Rice's acquisition of the Raymond Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments, now held in the Musical Instruments Museum Edinburgh at St Cecilia's Hall.

There he drew together his respect for the production of art and his belief in its historical and cultural significance in the curriculum of the fine art degree which he designed with the Edinburgh College of Art in 1946 on returning from war service as head of the Near East section of military intelligence. This degree course, innovative when set up and subsequently influential nationally, remains at the core of art history at the university. Talbot Rice held the chair until his death and during thirty-eight years his impact on the character of the university was profound. He held the offices appropriate to his chair and, later, to his position as vice-principal, but his influence was felt most through the university's own cultural life and through its standing in the wider community. Two of his initiatives demonstrate this: first, the acquisition of Raymond Russell's internationally renowned collection of keyboard instruments now housed in the university's St Cecilia's Hall and, second, the foundation of an art centre—now called the Talbot Rice Gallery—to house the university's nineteenth-century Torrie bequest of works of art and to mount contemporary exhibitions. Many generations of students, some equally distinguished in their fields, benefited from his inspiration and generosity as a teacher and from his great kindness. He had a natural sympathy with the young, and so he was all the more distressed at the unfair criticism he suffered as chairman of the disciplinary committee set up to adjudicate on the student unrest of 1968.

Holders of the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art

• 1880-1930: Gerard Baldwin Brown (1849-1932)
• 1931-1933: Sir Herbert Read (1893-1968)
• 1934-1972: David Talbot Rice (1903-1972)
• 1972-1981: Giles Henry Robertson (1913-1987)
• 1984-1995: Eric Campbell Fernie (1939- )
• 1996- : Richard Thomson (1953- )

Roger Tarr, ‘Rice, David Talbot (1903–1972)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 accessed 5 March 2015