Custom House, Greenock

Still working on the Adam Smith-George Wyllie associations.
Still working on the website.

Saturdays, though, are always good for making progress with it because the schools are off. So, one of us was down at Greenock today, to photos of Custom House so that we can add images of where George worked.

Working there, he would have passed a bust of Adam Smith every day. Smith, like Robert Burns and George Wyllie, was a customs officer.

According to Wikipedia, Custom House in Greenock is 'thought to be one of the finest in Britain'. It is a beautiful building, in need of a little TLC but the Greek columns still stand tall. The influences are there - Smith, of course, those columns, that lion, shipping all around.

The building has inspired other artists in the past. Robert Salmon, a founding father of American art, painted it in 1820 before he emigrated from Greenock to the USA. BBC has an image of his painting online, showing the river full of ships and people and activity. The painting was given to the town 80 years later by a famous shipowner and it can be seen at the McLean Museum.

Perhaps the detail of the custom crest seemed a little more Wyllie than the formality of the building but the influences and the atmosphere are there.

The Custom House, Greenock by Robert Salmon