HUGH ALLAN (1862 - 1909)

 
 
THE JAPANESE FAN
 
 
Signed & dated l.r. Ugolin Allan / 96
Oil on canvas
41 x 31cm 
 

PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 17 July 2002, lot 310
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hugh 'Ugolin' Allan was born to a family of brick manufacturers in Glasgow, and was the younger brother of the noted ceramicist and artist Jessie Russell Allan. It is likely that he attended the Glasgow School of Art, as his sister had done. Where the name Ugolin came from is unclear: the family had no connection to Italy, and it is likely that Hugh adopted the moniker in part because of an interest in early Renaissance painting. He published an article in the Art Journal on the art of painting in tempera (1). 
 
 
Allan exhibited widely throughout Scotland, showing paintings at the Royal Scottish Academy, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Scottish Society of Artists, Aberdeen Artists' Society and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art. The vast majority of Allan's oeuvre comprised Scottish landscape views, with the present work something of an anomaly. Our painting is an indication of what could have been had he followed his colleagues who had been influenced by the Aesthetic movement's love of all things Japoniste. 
 
 
Allan's most significant legacy is as the founder of Allander Pottery, which he established in 1904 with the assistance of a Mr McLaurin of the Scottish Guild of Handicrafts. The pottery was based in a small 'disused workman's house' on the banks of the Allander river in Milngavie, to the northwest of Glasgow. As it only ran for four years, and as it is believed that each of the works produced by the pottery were unique, they remain highly collectable. The Allander ceramics are often based on oriental designs, perhaps hinting at the inspiration behind our work. Allan is thought to have produced all of the pottery's works himself, working almost alone except for the assistance of a boy and the occasional employment of a thrower to work under his direction.