Collections

Designs for the Royal Scottish Academy Robes

Creator: Macgillivray, James Pittendrigh, RSA · 1856-1938

Designs for the Royal Scottish Academy Robes

One of at least two recorded design proposals by Macgillivray for official robes to be worn by the President and Members of Council of the Royal…

One of at least two recorded design proposals by Macgillivray for official robes to be worn by the President and Members of Council of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting Sculpture, and Architecture.

By 1910 steps were in hand for the remove of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from the building (now the NGS) which it had shared with the National Gallery of Scotland since 1859 (though the RSA had taken occupancy in 1855) on The Mound, to the adjacent refurbished Royal Institution building which henceforth became the Royal Scottish Academy. In conjunction with this, the sculptor member James Pittendrigh Macgillivray prepared designs for official robes. The President appears to have worn a black gown at certain events in the latter part of the 19th Century, but this was the first attempt to create a set of official robes to be worn on key occasions by the president and the Members of RSA Council.

The drawing in the NGS Collections is inscribed “Gown lilac, purple cloth, cap and stole velvet of a reder [sic] purple. Faculties differenced by colours of silk vest. Painting red, Sculpture blue, Architecture green. Silk instead of cloth for President. Maroon Morocco shoes with silver gilt buckles and vermillion heels, stockings, of purple silk, knee breeches of purple silk.”

Macgillivray's proposals were effectively adopted with the exception of the colour coded tunics to distinguish the disciplines of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, a single uniform maroon tunic being worn by all. This was met with a typical retort from Macgillivray; “But the Council had not the artistic sense to adopt different colours for the faculties – a dull, self-conscious lot.”

An interesting parallel can be drawn between Macgillivray's designs and his larger than life bronze statue of the Scottish Protestant Reformer, John Knox, at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, which shows him attired in a similar Geneva Gown, knee breeches and soft cloth cap. The approval to erect a statue to Knox was approved in 1902 and the finished bone was unveiled in November 1906.

According to the RSA Council Minutes, the earliest robes were made in Edinburgh by a Mr Kerr who appears to have died towards the end of the First World War. By 1920 the Edinburgh based form of Outfitters, R W Forsyth, had been entrusted with the work and delivered the President's gown. and in 1923 the Council Members were instructed to call at the Edinburgh outfitters R & W Forsyth to order their gowns of dull purple face cloth, with collars and broad borders of wine-dark velvet and gold braid shoulder frogs.

The following year (1924) it appears the cost of robing themselves was expected to fall entirely on the individual Members, but by 1925 the Academy bore the 9 guineas cost of each gown, whilst the members were expected to purchase cap and tunic at 3 guineas.

The tunics [cassocks] were of a claret-coloured ribbed silk, side-fixed with twinned flat gilt buttons, the cuffs and necks being trimmed with white pie-collar frills.

This design of the robes has effectively remained in use ever since – the knee breeches, and Morocco leather shoes with silver gilt buckles have however long-since been dispensed with.

They are worn at formal events, such as (but not exclusively) the private view of the Academy’s Annual exhibition, during official visits by the reigning sovereign, three times annually when the Academy is represented at services held in St Giles Cathedral; in effect whenever the President and Council are acting in an official capacity representing the Academy and its wider membership. We have a record of the then President attending the Coronation of King George VI resplendent in his RSA Robes.

The robes are, additionally augmented in the case of the President by the wearing of the Presidential Medal which is worn on the chain, also designed by Noel Paton, and hung round the neck.

The chain on its own rather than with the robes is also worn by the President at, for example, meetings of the Assembly of Academicians, which they chair, or at Varnishing Day lunches or official banquets where they are effectively acting as host.