Notable Scots: Artists

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) &
Margaret MacDonald (1864-1933):

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The Glasgow School was a circle of influential modern artists who conglomerated in Glasgow and flourished from the 1890s to the 1910s. The most prominent members of this group were known as the "Glasgow Four," who defined their collective as a blend of Celtic and Japanese design. This group included the acclaimed Charles Rennie Mackintosh; painter and glass-blower Margaret MacDonald; MacDonald's sister Frances; and teacher and designer Herbert MacNair, who married Frances in 1899.

Not to be confused with the inventor of the "Mackintosh" raincoat, Charles Rennie was born in the Townhead neighborhood of Glasgow. He met his wife, artist Margaret MacDonald, as a student at the Glasgow School of Art, and the two married in 1900. Margaret's collaboration with Charles on various projects was integral to his achievements as an artist. He once wrote to her in a letter, "Remember, you are half if not three-quarters of all my architectural [work]." 1

Glasgow School of Art

Hill House

Macintosh took inspiration from a variety of sources. Glasgow, one of the greatest ship-building centers in the world, enjoyed much exposure to Japanese design and engineering. Mackintosh admired the Japanese style, streamlined with simple structures and natural materials, focusing on form rather than ornamentation and artifice, as Western design did. Modernist ideas were also spreading through Europe at the end of the 19th century, which sought to dispose of burdens of the old traditions, and make art available to the individual through practical and functional utility. Mackintosh was a pioneer of the Art Nouveau movement, and was its main expounder in the United Kingdom. He sought to build around the needs of individuals who needed their very environment to be works of art.

Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh

Mackintosh combined these ideas with a hint of traditional Scottish architecture to develop a style composed of a contrast of strong right angles and subtle curves decorated with floral-inspired motifs. His most famous project was the new Glasgow School of Art building (1897-1909), which brought him international acclaim. Although Mackintosh's architectural career was short, spanning only about ten years, his private homes, commercial buildings, interior renovations, churches, and furniture pieces made a significant impact on British design.

Margaret MacDonald, Mackintosh's wife, collaborated with her sister and husband on a wide-ranging output varied from gesso, the medium in which she achieved greatest acclaim, to textiles, watercolours, and metalwork. Her most noted work is The May Queen (1900), three oil-painted gesso panels created to complement panels done by her husband (The Wassail) for the Ingram Street Tea Room.

The May Queen

The Wassail