Glasgow is a truly beautiful city - it’s no surprise that so many artists want to try and depict our streets onto canvas.
We wanted to look right back, with some paintings featured in the gallery nearly 200 years old, right up until the modern day to see how artists view our streets, and how much the city has changed in reality.
Paintings offer us a different view of our city from photographs - they can depict a feeling, a mood, and a lot more emotions than a photograph can - especially the older paintings which were a lot more capable of capturing an active scene than early cameras.
Of course some paintings outdate even the invention of cameras, which is particularly interesting given its our only window into the past street scenes of Glasgow. Of course maps and prose can try and set the scene, but none can come quite as close as capturing a street scene as a painting can.
Glasgow has always been a city that treasures the arts - whether that be through institutions like the Glasgow School of Art, or even early years classes in primary schools across the city - art has never been something that is overlooked in Glasgow.
We love to champion our artists here in Glasgow too - whether they be the likes of architectural great Charles Rennie Mackintosh or the Big Yin himself, Billy Connolly - Glasgow is a city that loves art.
For more on Glasgow paintings, make sure to check out our article: Paintings of Glasgow: 8 of the all-time best paintings made in Glasgow or by Glaswegian artists
For more historical features on Glasgow, heritage and history articles, and updates on the arts, make sure to check out our newsletter: Bringing you the best of GlasgowWorld in a newsletter - sign up for free today.
Take a look below at Glaswegian street scenes throughout the ages, as depicted by artists on canvas.
1. Stockwell Bridge - Van Der Houten (1838)
A painting titled Stockwell Bridge by Van Der Houten depicts a busy scene upon the River Clyde. It clearly depicts an island visible in the centre foreground of the painting, many of which were dotted across the city prior to the industrialisation of the River Clyde. | Contributed
2. Cowcaddens Street Scene - Alasdair Gray
Alasdair Gray studied at the Glasgow School of Art and wrote the critically acclaimed novel, Lanark. He spent a lot of time in university around Cowcaddens, and even included a scene set in the Cowcaddens play park in his seminal novel. The scene is meant to depict Cowcaddens as scene through the lens of Alasdair Gray from his years spent there while at Glasgow School of Art. | Creative Commons
3. Going to the Pictures with the Old Man - Thomas McGoran
Thomas McGoran is a near-100 year old artist who only shared his work with the world recently. A lot of his work depicts Glasgow street scenes from his youth, but our favourite is the pictured: Going to the Pictures with the Old Man. | Contributed
4. Industrial Landscape, Glasgow - Ian Fleming (1946)
Work on paper shows an industrial Glasgow at the beginning of the second world war. | The Fleming Family