John Keppie

John Keppie (4 August 1862 – 28 April 1945) was a Glasgow architect and artist. From an early age he was a close friend of Edward Atkinson Hornel and would often bring in New Year with him in Kirkcudbright. Within the architectural profession, he was closest to John Archibald Campbell, and is credited with training Charles Rennie MacKintosh.

Keppie was born in Glasgow, the fourth son of John Keppie, a wealthy tobacco importer and Helen Cuthbertson Hopkins. Articled, in 1880, to Campbell Douglas and Sellars, he attended classes at both University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art. He also appears to have enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1885, remaining there until 1886. An accomplished draughtsman, he won silver medals in the Tite Prize competitions of 1886 and 1887. He assisted Sellars with the firm's winning entry for the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888.

Following Sellars death in 1888, Keppie went into partnership with John Honeyman, establishing the firm Honeyman and Keppie. Mackintosh joined the firm in 1889 and from the 1890s Keppie appears to have been content to allow him to do most of the designing. It was whilst working for Honeyman and Keppie, who won the competition to design the new Art School building in 1896, that Mackintosh designed his greatest achievement. His design for Martyrs' Public School was also executed during this time (1895-1898).

Mackintosh was made partner in 1901, and Keppie returned to design, producing a series of Scots Renaissance buildings throughout Glasgow. He was admitted to the FRIBA in 1904. The partnership with Mackintosh dissolved in 1913. The following year the company won a major competition for the reconstruction of Glasgow Cross.

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