Fine Art

The Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art was founded in 1880, inaugurating the study of the discipline at Edinburgh University.

Gerard Baldwin Brown (1849-1932) was the first Watson-Gordon Professor of Fine Art at Edinburgh University.

Born in London, Gerard Baldwin Brown was educated at Uppingham School and Oriel College, Oxford (MA 1876). In 1880 he was appointed to the recently-created Watson-Gordon Chair of Fine Art in the University of Edinburgh and held it until he retired in 1930. The focus of the Chair 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 academic study was in its infancy, and Baldwin Brown espoused the cause, just as he supported the cause of university education for women; he lectured extensively to the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women.

He bequeathed ca 1,000 books, mainly published in the C19 and early C20, from his own library on fine art and archaeology. They were divided among the General Library and the class libraries for Fine Art and Archaeology.

Holders of the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art

• 1880-1930: Gerard Baldwin Brown (1849-1932)
• 1931-1933: Sir Herbert Read (1893-1968)
• 1996- : Richard Thomson