The Ballantine Collection was gifted to the Glasgow School of Art Archive in 1999 by Lewis Ballantine , a student of the School from January 1966 (when he joined the non-diploma class) until 1970. It is comprised of his own works of art such as life drawings, self portraits, design work and sketchbooks, and photographs; as well as sketchbooks and notebooks that belonged to his mother and father.
The work in the collection by Lewis Ballantine form a valuable record of his time at the Glasgow School of Art. They show the development of his work as an artist, and provide us with an example of the type of work that Drawing and Painting students were required to produce during this period.
Lewis Ballantine's mother, Alice Longmuir Nisbet was herself at Glasgow School of Art in the 1930s, and was involved in the Socialist Art Circle . The sketchbooks in this collection also contain works by other members of the group such as Stuart Henderson, Jimmy Morton , James ("Jimmy") Ogilvie , W. C. Thompson and John McLean .
The photographs in the collection picture Alice Longmuir Ballantine and John ("Jack") Hendry Ballantine, and Lewis Ballantine's maternal grandfather, Robert Dow Nisbet .
