fbpx
Wikipedia

Arthur Pillans Laurie

Prof Arthur Pillans Laurie FRSE LLD (1861–1949) was a Scottish chemist who pioneered the scientific analysis of paintings, especially by Rembrandt. He also was a fascist sympathiser who opposed the Second World War.

Arthur Pillans Laurie
Born(1861-11-06)6 November 1861
Died1949
Alma materCambridge University
Known forInfrared photography of paintings
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry, Analysis of paintings
InstitutionsRoyal College of Arts

Early life edit

Laurie was born on 6 November 1861, the son of Simon Somerville Laurie FRSE and his wife, Catherine Ann Hibburd.[1] The family lived at Brunstane House, a 17th-century country house, south of Portobello, in eastern Edinburgh.[2] He was the brother of zoologist Malcolm Laurie (1866–1932), also a fellow of the RSE.[3]

Laurie was educated at Edinburgh Academy from 1871 to 1878 and then studied Science at University of Edinburgh and then King's College, Cambridge, where he took a first in science in 1884.[4]

Chemist edit

The pre-Raphaelite painter William Holman Hunt interested Laurie in the chemistry of paint and the scientific analysis of paintings. Laurie pioneered the use of chemical analysis to discover the composition of artworks to show their true age and origins. He was the first to use infrared photography to reveal deeper layers of paint. Through infrared work, he found the date of a Rembrandt self-portrait in which the date painted by the artist had later been covered up.[4]

In 1885, Laurie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Peter Guthrie Tait, Alexander Crum Brown, Edward Sang and George Chrystal.[3]

In 1895, Laurie became a lecturer at St Mary's Hospital Medical School and joined the Royal Commission on Secondary Education.[4] In 1898, the Royal College of Physicians made him an examiner in chemistry.[4] In 1900, Laurie became the principal of Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh. He held that position until 1928.[4] In 1912, Laurie became the professor of chemistry to the Royal Academy of Arts.[4]

During the First World War, Laurie did extensive, if perhaps controversial, work as Chairman of the Chemical Inventing Committee, part of the Munitions Inventions Department, and he also served on the Chemical Waste Products and Buildings Committee.[5] In 1915, Laurie complained that his eclectic interests were hindering his career as he wrote about his inability to get himself elected to the Royal Society: "I believe the trouble is I am neither 'fish, flesh, nor good red herring'".[6] At various times, Laurie published articles on British politics, electrochemistry, stone preservation, paint, educational reform, munitions, vegetarianism and what he called the "scientific examination of art", which for him was "a mixture of scientific experiments and literary criticism".[6]

In particular, Laurie set himself up as an expert on authenticating paintings by Rembrandt,[6] who had been largely ignored during his own lifetime, and his fame was posthumous. It was only in the early 20th century that it was decided that he had been a great painter after all. Because Rembrandt had been ignored in the 17th century, it was difficult to determine whether paintings were actually by him since it was always easy for a forger to add a signature resembling Rembrandt's to a 17th-century painting by another artist or even to produce a complete forgery done in a style that resembled his style and to pass off the work as a previously unknown painting by him. Laurie believed that by taking magnified photographs of paintings, he could determine via scientific methods of analysis of the style of the brushwork whether or not the painting was by Rembrandt.[6]

Laurie stood as a candidate for Parliament at the 1929 general election in the constituency of Edinburgh South for the Liberal Party, finishing second. In 1932, Laurie published the book The Brushwork of Rembrandt and his School.[6]

Fascism edit

Between 14 May-15 June 1937, an Imperial conference attended by all the leaders of the Commonwealth was held in London to allow the Dominion Prime Ministers to attend the coronation of the new king George VI and to meet the new king. Laurie prepared a memo that he was able to have issued to the Dominion prime ministers on the account of his reputation as a world-famous chemist, stating his views about Eastern Europe and asking for the Dominions to apply pressure on the United Kingdom not to become involved in Eastern Europe.[7] Laurie believed that there was a possibility that the new government of Neville Chamberlain might go to war with Germany on the account of a conflict in Eastern Europe and wanted the Dominion prime ministers to dissuade him from that prospect.[8]

Laurie began with the statement that airbases in Czechoslovakia exposed Germany to danger, arguing it was possible to bomb German cities from Czechoslovakia.[9] Laurie argued the economic prosperity of Czechoslovakia rested on the Sudeten Germans and that: "Since the war, the Germans have been in a most unhappy situation. The glass factories are in ruin, the trade is gone, and what work is going is given to the Czechs".[9] Laurie depicted living conditions in the Sudetenland as abysmal and claimed falsely that most Sudeten German children were suffering from hunger as he accused the Czechs of vacuuming up all of their wealth.[9] Laurie wrote that he believed the main dangers to European peace were the French premier Léon Blum and the Soviet foreign commissar Maxim Litvinov.[9] Laurie noted that both Blum and Litvinov were Jews, which led him to accuse both men of seeking war against the Reich.[9] Laurie ended his memo by stating that "Bohemia" should belong to Germany and felt that the Dominions should not go to war for the sake of Czechoslovakia, writing: "It is for the Dominions to save Great Britain from this terrible blunder".[9] Laurie was influenced by the memory of the Chanak Crisis of 1922 when the Dominions collectively put an end to plans for Britain to go to war against Turkey, and without Dominion support Britain was forced to backdown.

In 1937, Laurie joined The Link, a pro-Nazi group led by Admiral Barry Domvile, which as its name suggests was intended to be a link with the NSDAP.[10] Laurie sat on the national council of The Link.[11] Other members of The Link's national council were Lord Redesdale, Raymond Beazley, C.E. Carroll, and A.E.R. Dyer.[12] On 12 October 1938, Laurie had published a letter to The Times advocating an Anglo-German alliance.[13]

After Germany violated the Munich Agreement by seizing the Czech half of Czecho-Slovakia on 15 March 1939, which became the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia, there was a notable shift in British public opinion against Germany with even many of the former "enthusiasts" for the Third Reich either changing their views or falling silent.[14] Laurie was an exception amongst the "enthusiasts" in continuing to defend Nazi Germany and even the March action, which had so enraged British people.[15] On 8 May 1939, Laurie's work, The Case for Germany, was published in Berlin with a foreword by his close friend, Admiral Domvile.[10] It is pro-Nazi anti-Semitic book and praises Hitler's Germany. The book begins by commending Hitler as a painter and then expounds National Socialism. He continues with a defence of Nazism as he experienced it during his stay in Germany and criticizes Marxist socialism. In The Case for Germany, Laurie professed to be taking the stance of an objective scientist who reached his conclusions based upon a strictly empirical approach. The Case for Germany was given extensive publicity in Germany, and remained in print even after the war began.[10] At the beginning of The Case for Germany, Laurie wrote: "It is with admiration and gratitude that I dedicate this book to the Führer.[16]

On 26 July 1939 Laurie attended a dinner hosted by Sir Oswald Mosley and Lady Diana Mosley whose other attendees included the Conservative MPs Jocelyn Lucas, John Moore-Brabazon and Archibald Maule Ramsay; George Ward Price, the "extra-special correspondent" for The Daily Mail newspaper; Philip Farrar, the private secretary to Lord Salisbury; Admiral Barry Domvile of The Link; the journalist A. K. Chesterton; and the famous military historian J. F. C. Fuller.[17] The main theme of the dinner was trying to find a way to stop the Danzig crisis from escalating into war, which those present at the dinner feeling it was the British Jewish community who were the ones pushing for a war.[17] The principle fear expressed by those attending the dinner was that another war came, the British empire would be so weakened as to go into decline, thereby allowing so-called "inferior races" to take over the world.

In an article entitled "An Open Letter to the Young Men of Britain" published in Action, the official newspaper of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), on 2 September 1939, Laurie-who knew that Britain would almost certainly declare war on Germany the next day-appealed to British servicemen to desert rather than fight in what he called the "Jews' War".[10] In "An Open Letter", Laurie began with the statement: "Germany has committed the unforgivable sin of refusing borrow money from international financiers and so they must be punished".[18] Laurie argued that Britain had no quarrel with Germany and as such he argued that British servicemen should desert en masse to prevent what he called two "Aryan" peoples from destroying each other in a war that Laurie insisted was the result of a Jewish conspiracy.[19] During the Phoney war of 1939–1940, Laurie attended meetings of various "patriotic" groups that worked for peace with Germany.[20]

Death edit

He died on 7 October 1949.

Publications edit

Among Laurie's many technical writings are the following.[4]

  • The Food of Plants, (1893)
  • Facts About Processes, Pigments, and Vehicles – a Manual for Art Students, (1895)
  • Greek and Roman Methods of Painting, (1910)
  • The Materials of the Painter's Craft in Europe and Egypt, from the Earliest Times to the End of the XVIIth Century, (1910)
  • The Pigments and Mediums of the Old Masters, (1914)
  • The Painter's Methods and Materials, (1926)
  • A Study of Rembrandt and the Painting of his School, (1929)
  • The Brush Work of Rembrandt and his School, (1932)
  • Pictures and Politics, (1934)
  • New Light on Old Masters, (1935)
  • The Case for Germany, (1939)

References edit

  1. ^ (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  2. ^ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office directory 1870–71
  3. ^ a b (PDF). Biographical Index, Part Two. Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g . Biographical Information. NAHSTE (Navigational Aids for the History of Science, Technology & the Environment). Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  5. ^ (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e Vanpaemel, Geert. "Rembrandt's Chemist: A.P. Laurie and the Public Science of Art". Academica. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  7. ^ Novotný 2019, p. 163.
  8. ^ Novotný 2019, pp. 163–164.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Novotný 2019, p. 164.
  10. ^ a b c d Griffiths 2016, p. 324.
  11. ^ Griffiths 1980, p. 308.
  12. ^ Griffiths 1980, p. 330.
  13. ^ Stone 2003, p. 63.
  14. ^ Griffiths 1998, p. 67.
  15. ^ Griffiths 1998, p. 68.
  16. ^ Winter 2007, p. 32.
  17. ^ a b Griffiths 1998, p. 114.
  18. ^ Griffiths 1998, p. 184.
  19. ^ Griffiths 2016, p. 16.
  20. ^ Griffiths 2016, p. 325.

Bibliography edit

  • Year Book of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1950 (Session 1948–1949), Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1951.
  • Who's Who 1938, A&C Black, London, 1937.
  • Rawlins, FIG; Hartley, Harold; Farmer, RC; Stacey, M (1950). "Obituary notices: Arthur Pillans Laurie, 1861–1949; Sir Henry Miers, 1858–1942; Sir Robert Robertson, 1869–1949; F. E. Whitmore, 1923–1949". Journal of the Chemical Society: 429–441. doi:10.1039/JR9500000429.
  • Griffiths, Richard (1980). Fellow Travellers of the Right British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany, 1933-9. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0094634602.
  • Griffiths, Richard (1998). Patriotism Perverted Captain Ramsay, the Right Club, and British Anti-Semitism, 1939-1940. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571310456.
  • Griffiths, Richard (2016). What Did You Do During the War? The Last Throes of the British Pro-Nazi Right, 1940-45. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781138888999.
  • Novotný, Lukáš (2019). The British Legation in Prague Perception of Czech-German Relations in Czechoslovakia Between 1933 and 1938. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110651454.
  • Stone, Daniel (2003). Responses to Nazism in Britain, 1933-1939 Before War and Holocaust. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230505537.
  • Winter, Barbara (2007). The Australia First Movement. Carindale: Interactive Publications. ISBN 9781876819910.

External links edit

arthur, pillans, laurie, prof, frse, 1861, 1949, scottish, chemist, pioneered, scientific, analysis, paintings, especially, rembrandt, also, fascist, sympathiser, opposed, second, world, born, 1861, november, 1861edinburghdied1949alma, matercambridge, universi. Prof Arthur Pillans Laurie FRSE LLD 1861 1949 was a Scottish chemist who pioneered the scientific analysis of paintings especially by Rembrandt He also was a fascist sympathiser who opposed the Second World War Arthur Pillans LaurieBorn 1861 11 06 6 November 1861EdinburghDied1949Alma materCambridge UniversityKnown forInfrared photography of paintingsScientific careerFieldsChemistry Analysis of paintingsInstitutionsRoyal College of Arts Contents 1 Early life 2 Chemist 3 Fascism 4 Death 5 Publications 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External linksEarly life editLaurie was born on 6 November 1861 the son of Simon Somerville Laurie FRSE and his wife Catherine Ann Hibburd 1 The family lived at Brunstane House a 17th century country house south of Portobello in eastern Edinburgh 2 He was the brother of zoologist Malcolm Laurie 1866 1932 also a fellow of the RSE 3 Laurie was educated at Edinburgh Academy from 1871 to 1878 and then studied Science at University of Edinburgh and then King s College Cambridge where he took a first in science in 1884 4 Chemist editThe pre Raphaelite painter William Holman Hunt interested Laurie in the chemistry of paint and the scientific analysis of paintings Laurie pioneered the use of chemical analysis to discover the composition of artworks to show their true age and origins He was the first to use infrared photography to reveal deeper layers of paint Through infrared work he found the date of a Rembrandt self portrait in which the date painted by the artist had later been covered up 4 In 1885 Laurie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh His proposers were Peter Guthrie Tait Alexander Crum Brown Edward Sang and George Chrystal 3 In 1895 Laurie became a lecturer at St Mary s Hospital Medical School and joined the Royal Commission on Secondary Education 4 In 1898 the Royal College of Physicians made him an examiner in chemistry 4 In 1900 Laurie became the principal of Heriot Watt College Edinburgh He held that position until 1928 4 In 1912 Laurie became the professor of chemistry to the Royal Academy of Arts 4 During the First World War Laurie did extensive if perhaps controversial work as Chairman of the Chemical Inventing Committee part of the Munitions Inventions Department and he also served on the Chemical Waste Products and Buildings Committee 5 In 1915 Laurie complained that his eclectic interests were hindering his career as he wrote about his inability to get himself elected to the Royal Society I believe the trouble is I am neither fish flesh nor good red herring 6 At various times Laurie published articles on British politics electrochemistry stone preservation paint educational reform munitions vegetarianism and what he called the scientific examination of art which for him was a mixture of scientific experiments and literary criticism 6 In particular Laurie set himself up as an expert on authenticating paintings by Rembrandt 6 who had been largely ignored during his own lifetime and his fame was posthumous It was only in the early 20th century that it was decided that he had been a great painter after all Because Rembrandt had been ignored in the 17th century it was difficult to determine whether paintings were actually by him since it was always easy for a forger to add a signature resembling Rembrandt s to a 17th century painting by another artist or even to produce a complete forgery done in a style that resembled his style and to pass off the work as a previously unknown painting by him Laurie believed that by taking magnified photographs of paintings he could determine via scientific methods of analysis of the style of the brushwork whether or not the painting was by Rembrandt 6 Laurie stood as a candidate for Parliament at the 1929 general election in the constituency of Edinburgh South for the Liberal Party finishing second In 1932 Laurie published the book The Brushwork of Rembrandt and his School 6 Fascism editBetween 14 May 15 June 1937 an Imperial conference attended by all the leaders of the Commonwealth was held in London to allow the Dominion Prime Ministers to attend the coronation of the new king George VI and to meet the new king Laurie prepared a memo that he was able to have issued to the Dominion prime ministers on the account of his reputation as a world famous chemist stating his views about Eastern Europe and asking for the Dominions to apply pressure on the United Kingdom not to become involved in Eastern Europe 7 Laurie believed that there was a possibility that the new government of Neville Chamberlain might go to war with Germany on the account of a conflict in Eastern Europe and wanted the Dominion prime ministers to dissuade him from that prospect 8 Laurie began with the statement that airbases in Czechoslovakia exposed Germany to danger arguing it was possible to bomb German cities from Czechoslovakia 9 Laurie argued the economic prosperity of Czechoslovakia rested on the Sudeten Germans and that Since the war the Germans have been in a most unhappy situation The glass factories are in ruin the trade is gone and what work is going is given to the Czechs 9 Laurie depicted living conditions in the Sudetenland as abysmal and claimed falsely that most Sudeten German children were suffering from hunger as he accused the Czechs of vacuuming up all of their wealth 9 Laurie wrote that he believed the main dangers to European peace were the French premier Leon Blum and the Soviet foreign commissar Maxim Litvinov 9 Laurie noted that both Blum and Litvinov were Jews which led him to accuse both men of seeking war against the Reich 9 Laurie ended his memo by stating that Bohemia should belong to Germany and felt that the Dominions should not go to war for the sake of Czechoslovakia writing It is for the Dominions to save Great Britain from this terrible blunder 9 Laurie was influenced by the memory of the Chanak Crisis of 1922 when the Dominions collectively put an end to plans for Britain to go to war against Turkey and without Dominion support Britain was forced to backdown In 1937 Laurie joined The Link a pro Nazi group led by Admiral Barry Domvile which as its name suggests was intended to be a link with the NSDAP 10 Laurie sat on the national council of The Link 11 Other members of The Link s national council were Lord Redesdale Raymond Beazley C E Carroll and A E R Dyer 12 On 12 October 1938 Laurie had published a letter to The Times advocating an Anglo German alliance 13 After Germany violated the Munich Agreement by seizing the Czech half of Czecho Slovakia on 15 March 1939 which became the Protectorate of Bohemia Moravia there was a notable shift in British public opinion against Germany with even many of the former enthusiasts for the Third Reich either changing their views or falling silent 14 Laurie was an exception amongst the enthusiasts in continuing to defend Nazi Germany and even the March action which had so enraged British people 15 On 8 May 1939 Laurie s work The Case for Germany was published in Berlin with a foreword by his close friend Admiral Domvile 10 It is pro Nazi anti Semitic book and praises Hitler s Germany The book begins by commending Hitler as a painter and then expounds National Socialism He continues with a defence of Nazism as he experienced it during his stay in Germany and criticizes Marxist socialism In The Case for Germany Laurie professed to be taking the stance of an objective scientist who reached his conclusions based upon a strictly empirical approach The Case for Germany was given extensive publicity in Germany and remained in print even after the war began 10 At the beginning of The Case for Germany Laurie wrote It is with admiration and gratitude that I dedicate this book to the Fuhrer 16 On 26 July 1939 Laurie attended a dinner hosted by Sir Oswald Mosley and Lady Diana Mosley whose other attendees included the Conservative MPs Jocelyn Lucas John Moore Brabazon and Archibald Maule Ramsay George Ward Price the extra special correspondent for The Daily Mail newspaper Philip Farrar the private secretary to Lord Salisbury Admiral Barry Domvile of The Link the journalist A K Chesterton and the famous military historian J F C Fuller 17 The main theme of the dinner was trying to find a way to stop the Danzig crisis from escalating into war which those present at the dinner feeling it was the British Jewish community who were the ones pushing for a war 17 The principle fear expressed by those attending the dinner was that another war came the British empire would be so weakened as to go into decline thereby allowing so called inferior races to take over the world In an article entitled An Open Letter to the Young Men of Britain published in Action the official newspaper of the British Union of Fascists BUF on 2 September 1939 Laurie who knew that Britain would almost certainly declare war on Germany the next day appealed to British servicemen to desert rather than fight in what he called the Jews War 10 In An Open Letter Laurie began with the statement Germany has committed the unforgivable sin of refusing borrow money from international financiers and so they must be punished 18 Laurie argued that Britain had no quarrel with Germany and as such he argued that British servicemen should desert en masse to prevent what he called two Aryan peoples from destroying each other in a war that Laurie insisted was the result of a Jewish conspiracy 19 During the Phoney war of 1939 1940 Laurie attended meetings of various patriotic groups that worked for peace with Germany 20 Death editHe died on 7 October 1949 Publications editAmong Laurie s many technical writings are the following 4 The Food of Plants 1893 Facts About Processes Pigments and Vehicles a Manual for Art Students 1895 Greek and Roman Methods of Painting 1910 The Materials of the Painter s Craft in Europe and Egypt from the Earliest Times to the End of the XVIIth Century 1910 The Pigments and Mediums of the Old Masters 1914 The Painter s Methods and Materials 1926 A Study of Rembrandt and the Painting of his School 1929 The Brush Work of Rembrandt and his School 1932 Pictures and Politics 1934 New Light on Old Masters 1935 The Case for Germany 1939 References edit Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 2002 PDF The Royal Society of Edinburgh July 2006 ISBN 0 902 198 84 X Archived from the original PDF on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 17 March 2017 Edinburgh and Leith Post Office directory 1870 71 a b Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 2002 PDF Biographical Index Part Two Royal Society of Edinburgh July 2006 Archived from the original PDF on 16 January 2014 Retrieved 8 October 2012 a b c d e f g Arthur Pillans Laurie Biographical Information NAHSTE Navigational Aids for the History of Science Technology amp the Environment Archived from the original on 14 July 2012 Retrieved 9 October 2012 Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 2002 PDF The Royal Society of Edinburgh July 2006 ISBN 0 902 198 84 X Archived from the original PDF on 4 March 2016 Retrieved 17 March 2017 a b c d e Vanpaemel Geert Rembrandt s Chemist A P Laurie and the Public Science of Art Academica Retrieved 8 March 2022 Novotny 2019 p 163 Novotny 2019 pp 163 164 a b c d e f Novotny 2019 p 164 a b c d Griffiths 2016 p 324 Griffiths 1980 p 308 Griffiths 1980 p 330 Stone 2003 p 63 Griffiths 1998 p 67 Griffiths 1998 p 68 Winter 2007 p 32 a b Griffiths 1998 p 114 Griffiths 1998 p 184 Griffiths 2016 p 16 Griffiths 2016 p 325 Bibliography editYear Book of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1950 Session 1948 1949 Oliver and Boyd Edinburgh 1951 Who s Who 1938 A amp C Black London 1937 Rawlins FIG Hartley Harold Farmer RC Stacey M 1950 Obituary notices Arthur Pillans Laurie 1861 1949 Sir Henry Miers 1858 1942 Sir Robert Robertson 1869 1949 F E Whitmore 1923 1949 Journal of the Chemical Society 429 441 doi 10 1039 JR9500000429 Griffiths Richard 1980 Fellow Travellers of the Right British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany 1933 9 Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0094634602 Griffiths Richard 1998 Patriotism Perverted Captain Ramsay the Right Club and British Anti Semitism 1939 1940 London Faber amp Faber ISBN 9780571310456 Griffiths Richard 2016 What Did You Do During the War The Last Throes of the British Pro Nazi Right 1940 45 Taylor amp Francis ISBN 9781138888999 Novotny Lukas 2019 The British Legation in Prague Perception of Czech German Relations in Czechoslovakia Between 1933 and 1938 Berlin De Gruyter ISBN 9783110651454 Stone Daniel 2003 Responses to Nazism in Britain 1933 1939 Before War and Holocaust London Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 9780230505537 Winter Barbara 2007 The Australia First Movement Carindale Interactive Publications ISBN 9781876819910 External links editWorks by or about Arthur Pillans Laurie at Internet Archive NAHSTE Papers of Arthur Pillans Laurie Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Arthur Pillans Laurie amp oldid 1197814222, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.