The Burrell Collection

This morning we headed through to Glasgow - via the M9 friends, whatever you do, do stay away from the M8 just now as there are road and lane closures on it for the next while.
I'd heard the Burrell Collection had reopened and have been eagerly looking forward to this visit. I would love to have been William Burrell, his collection has many similarities to my own, but his is of rather higher value. He just collected things, in many cases because nobody else did. I think he'd have liked to have had my great aunt's 1918 woollen swimming costume if he'd known I had it, but it's OK, I'm keeping it safe!
In the gallery I was happy to meet up with old friends like the Tang Dynasty Horse and Bactrian Camel. I didn't remember seeing the 'Portrait of a Little Girl Aged One With Rattle' before, it was a gift in 1944 from the Burrells to the city of Glasgow. The other item in my main blip is a carved silver mounted coconut shell dated, and made in London, would you believe, in 1662. I'm astounded there were coconuts in London in 1662, let alone that one has survived. I assume it was a curiousity brought back by an adventurer. The central view is along one of the galleries.
One of the wonderful things about the Burrell was always its sense of air and space, that's still there, in fact physically there is little visible change. There is a new entrance, a wonderful and much larger shop, extra cafe facilities and a new exhibition area downstairs. I have to confess to being rather disappointed in other aspects though.
I'd heard that the exhibit labels had been criticised for their 'dumbing down' of information - 'lots of artists focus on the expressions on faces, can you see a smiling face?' and similar. Of the 'Little Girl' portrait above, the label gives its title and date (1635) then the only information given is:
"This child is only about one year old, it's often hard to get toddlers to stay still. Could you pose long enough to be painted?
Dutch School, oil on canvas"!
I was disappointed too in some of the lighting, many of the paintings are impossible to see at the same time as their descriptive labels as the labels are not positioned beside the work they are describing. Some are lit in such a way that they can only be seen from some distance away because of reflections, while others are lit in such a way that they are to be seen best from the upper floors..... but from upstairs they are seen from an angle not straight on and the information labels are at ground level on the floor below.....
There were many beautiful double sided displays, with items facing in both directions in a glazed alcove. You looked at them from two separate rooms. I really like being able to see the backs of objects - but half of the labels faced one way and half the other. They could so easily have been made double sided so that the information was available from whichever side the object was viewed.
I found that there were were too many visual and auditory distractions. Video commentaries playing in certain rooms described what was on display or how items were made. There were moving audio-visual displays behind actual objects which I found rather disturbing both aurally and visually. These were also distracting..... and I'm not going to touch on the way gender issues were covered you can read about that online.
I can understand and commend that they were trying to make things accessible and more interesting for children and I'm sure that has worked, but I͟ was looking for information too and that didn't work for me.

My extra has a few other favourites. I realise I haven't included any of the Rodin bronzes, or the Degas, or the Egyptian objects or the architectural objects or, or, or.... However, the butterfly girl is by Matthijs Maris, there are several of his works; the lady is one of Elizabeth 1's ladies in waiting, also called Elizabeth; the two figures are of St John and Mary - apparently he is very sad because his friend Jesus has died! I loved the bowl but could find no information whatsoever about it, anywhere.

The Burrell is a wonderful museum and I'll keep going back, but (and I did feed back on a visitor comment form) I don't think they have got it right in several ways. The attendants I spoke to seemed to have reservations too and encouraged visitors to feed back as opinions were listened to and those of visitors carried weight.
Do go, it's a wonderful place in a wonderful setting and the objects are worth several viewings. I think I still have my old guidebook somewhere, so that may help in my need to know more about some of the items on display.