University of Glasgow - Postgraduate research students

Jenny Macleod

j.macleod.2@research.gla.ac.uk

Research title: ‘Scottish Women Etchers of the Etching Revival, 1880-1930’

Research Summary

Jenny MacLeod is a doctoral researcher undertaking an AHRC and SGSAH funded project exploring Scottish women printmakers between 1850 and 1950. Her research will examine women’s participation as printmakers in Scotland and the system of artistic training available to them, looking beyond traditional training to include apprenticeships, workshops and private/family instruction.

Despite Scotland’s strong printmaking heritage, current research on printmaking during the Etching Revival is fragmented and overwhelmingly concentrates on America, France and England. Moreover, within the existing literature there is a distinct lack of focus on women’s contribution to the art at a time when an increasing number of women were training and practising as artists.

Jenny will examine the environments that produced outstanding etchers such as James McBey, David Young Cameron, and Muirhead Bone, and compare these artists’ experiences with those of their female counterparts. Her areas of focus will include an examination of the prominent Scottish printmakers and their socio-economic backgrounds, the genres/subject matters printmakers worked in and how far these can be associated with their gender, whilst also looking at how women’s work was marketed, collected and received compared to their male counterparts.

By addressing the experiences of both genders across social classes, this thesis seeks to establish a more inclusive history of the art and definitive account of etching as an original art form, specifically in the Scottish context.

Research Interests

Scottish women artists/makers/designers

History of Printmaking

Etching Revival

Scottish 19th and 20th century art

Scottish art market and collecting practices

Scottish folklore & representations in visual art

Research Groups

Scottish Women in the Arts Research Network (SWARN)

Supervisors

Grants

Engagement Funding, Scottish Graduate School for the Arts & Humanities, January 2024

Research Training Support Grant, College of the Arts, University of Glasgow, July 2023

Cohort Development Fund, Scottish Graduate School for the Arts & Humanities, 'Folklore in the Landscape Workshop & Exhibition', October 2022.

SGSAH AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership Scholarship, Full Award (2020-2025)

Conferences

"...a spirit has breathed to me.": The ethereal imagery of "Fiona MacLeod" and the Otherworld in the printed work of Margaret Stirling Dobson (1882-1965)', Art & Text, The Scottish Society for Art History & National Library of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh (2025)

'The Print Collection of Catherine Spence Howden (1875-1925): A Snapshot of the Etching Revival', Women Collectors Event, Dunollie Castle, Oban (2024)

'Katherine Cameron's Depictions of Scottish Plante Lore: A Gendered Navigation of the British Print Market, 1900-1930', Women and the Natural Environment Webinar, Scottish Women in the Arts Research Network, Scottish Society for Art History and the British Art Network's Land Research Group, (2023)

'Flora Celtica: Katherine Cameron, Scottish Plant Lore, and the Etching Revival', Scottish Women in the Arts Research Network Spring Workshop, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen (2022)

'Expressing the Artistic Soul: Artistic Dress in Dundee, 1880-1910', Association of Dress Historians New Research in Dress History Conference, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (2022)

Additional Information

BROADCASTS/MEDIA APPEARANCES

"Renoir at McTear's", Interview with Kaye Adams, Lunchtime Live, BBC Radio Scotland, 11th March, 2020.

PROJECTS

Folklore in the Landscape Workshop & Exhibition - A series of two half-day hybrid workshops, aimed at doctoral researchers registered at SGSAH HEIs working in areas of Celtic studies, digital humanities, visual arts, and cultural/museum studies. Through a conference-style online workshop, a monoprinting workshop & exhibition at Glasgow School of Art we explored intangible relationships between people and Scotland’s landscape. Funded by SGSAH Cohort Development Fund - October - December 2022