George Duncan Macdougald (1881-1945)

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) 🔴

Signed and Dated: “G.D. MacDougald 1911”

Exhibited: Royal Academy 1912

Bronze, 51 x 46 x 25cm

““I spent the first half of my life making money and the second half of my life giving it away...””

— Andrew Carnegie

In 1905 the sculptor George Duncan MacDougald won a Landseer scholarship to study at the Royal Academy Schools in London. His earlier studies were likely at the Glasgow School of Art; later obituaries record his training under the sculptor William Birnie Rhind (1853-1933), who shared his Glasgow workshop with younger brother John Massey Rhind (1860-1936). Massey Rhind worked in Paris with Jules Dalou (a friend of Auguste Rodin), before emigrating to the USA.

Andrew Carnegie had dealings with both brothers: J. Massey Rhind made his portrait bust in 1908, while William Birnie Rhind’s statue of Robbie Burns was sponsored and unveiled by Carnegie in 1912. It was likely through them that MacDougald came to portray the Scottish-American industrialist in 1911. The fame of the sitter, as well as other significant commissions taken at the same time, speak for an artistic reputation that time has almost entirely eroded. Such an erosion might have begun with the outbreak of the First World War, which seems to have come as MacDougald was entering his prime. He joined the London Scottish Regiment before later transferring to the camouflage section of the Royal Engineers.

After WWI MacDougald lent his skills to a series of stylish war memorials and plaques. It is also possible that the economic depression following a world war is the reason that he worked with bronze before the war and canvas and paint after it.

When a promising artist does emerge unscathed from war, they have often lost key years in their development. And resuming their studies at an older age, they quickly find that they have lost the optimism and vitality of their youth.

ROdin & Glasgow

The bust bears a striking resemblance to Rodin’s Victor Hugo (Glasgow Life Museums), which had been in Glasgow since 1888, after being bought from the artist by the collector Robert Walker for the price of ten pounds. The sum vastly eclipsed comparable offers at home, and reflected the rising affection for Rodin’s work in a city that saw his genius many years before a Paris exhibition began converting his less faithful countrymen.

Between 1888 and 1911, Rodin frequently came to Glasgow, receiving an honorary doctorate from the University in 1905. The closeness of this relationship is perhaps best reflected by the fact that, through the collector William Burrell, a comparatively small city, now has one of the oldest and most significant collections of Rodin’s work in the world.

Dundee Reading Rooms, Blackscroft Library (c1960)

Carnegie & Posterity

Though exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1912, the bust was made in 1911 for Dundee’s Central Reading Room, one of the many libraries Andrew Carnegie financed in the final two decades of his life, when he was busily giving away 90% of his vast fortune. The move reflected his belief in the ‘Gospel of Wealth’ - that money was best given to the community than preserved in families, where it could be squandered by successive generations.

With that in mind, it is interesting to note that the library that Carnegie hoped would become a centre for self-improvement, was sold by Dundee council in 1983 and converted into a nightclub. This bust was likely removed during the conversion, thus saving future revellers from Carnegie’s disapproving gaze. Though one of the more explicit cases of Carnegie’s vision falling to the hedonism that he sought to moderate, the fact that there are just 750 of his 1600 Libraries remaining in the USA, suggests it wasn’t the only time that his vision came up against the realities of human nature

The commissions for the busts of Sir William Ogilvy Dalgleish, Bart., and Mr Andrew Carnegie to be placed in niches in Dundee’s new central reading room, have been entrusted to Mr G.D. MacDougald... The Dalgleish bust is being provided by the Free Library Committee, and that of Mr Carnegie by the Town Council. The busts will be in bronze, and form a feature of the entrance hall. It is expected that the new building will be completed in the course of the summer, and that it may be formally opened in September next.
(Thursday 23 March 1911 - Dundee Courier)