25 Facts About William Burrell

Sir William Burrell was one of the world's great art collectors.

William Burrell was born into a prosperous middle-class family of ship owners.

William Burrell joined this business in 1875, at the age of 14.

William Burrell had a natural flair for business and earned himself a sizeable fortune.

William Burrell had developed an interest in art as a boy and he used his wealth to steadily build his collection, quickly surpassing his local contemporaries in terms of the quantity and quality of his artworks and firmly established an international reputation as a collector of good taste and judgement.

William Burrell understood what he was buying, and his refined taste led him to areas that other collectors dared not touch.

William Burrell was a faithful patron of Scottish artists including Joseph Crawhall II, George Henry and John Lavery.

William Burrell commissioned Lavery to paint a portrait of his sister Mary Burrell in 1896.

William Burrell used his wealth to advance himself in society and to purchase Hutton Castle in Berwickshire, where his Gothic collections were displayed to great effect.

William Burrell had a deep sense of public duty, serving for long periods as a local councillor in Glasgow and Berwickshire, and as a trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland and the Tate Gallery in London.

William Burrell wished to use his art collection for public good and lent large parts of it to galleries around the country so that as many people as possible could enjoy it.

William Burrell donated the majority of his collection to Glasgow in 1944, which at the time amounted to 6,000 items.

William Burrell continued to add to collection so that today it amounts to a staggering 9,000 artworks.

William Burrell donated smaller parts of his collection to Berwick-upon-Tweed and several other provincial galleries, with the aim of enhancing the cultural standing of these places.

In 1944 William Burrell donated his collection to the city of Glasgow.

William Burrell simply wanted people to gain as much pleasure from art as he had, and to improve their lives through a better understanding and appreciation of beauty.

William Burrell had clear intentions regarding the collection's location, contents and display, and he stated that the collection was to be housed 'in a suitable distinct and separated building' that was to be 'within four miles of Killearn, Stirlingshire, and not less than sixteen miles from Glasgow Royal exchange'.

William Burrell was 40 and Constance was just 25, but this was very much a marriage of financial equals.

William Burrell endured great physical pain and developed postnatal depression.

When she made what William Burrell thought were inappropriate romantic liaisons, he quickly intervened to cancel her engagements.

William Burrell's collecting passions were shared with his wife Constance, who played an active role in developing the collection.

William Burrell died of heart failure brought on by pneumonia at Hutton Castle on 29 March 1958 at the age of 96.

William Burrell was knighted in 1927 for his public and political work and services to art in Scotland.

William Burrell was the recipient of the 1946 St Mungo Prize, awarded to the individual who has done most in the previous three years to improve and promote the city of Glasgow.

William Burrell was a Scottish Freemason, initiated in the Prince's Lodge No 607, on 9 May, Passed on 7 November 1892 and Raised on 12 March 1893.