Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 - 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist who was a designer in the Arts and Crafts Movement and also the main exponent of Art Nouveau in Scotland.Born in Glasgow, he was apprenticed to an architect, but also attended evening classes in art. It was at that time he first met Margaret MacDonald (whom he later married), her sister Frances MacDonald and Herbert McNair. The group of artists, known as "The Four," exhibited in Glasgow, London and Vienna, and these exhibitions helped establish Mackintosh's reputation. The so-called "Glasgow" style was exhibited in Europe and influenced the Viennese Art Nouveau movement known as Sezessionstil (in English, The Secession) around 1900.
He joined a firm of architects in 1889 and developed his own style: a contrast between strong right angles and floral-inspired decorative motifs with subtle curves, e.g. the Mackintosh Rose motif, along with some references to traditional Scottish architecture. The project that helped make his international reputation was the Glasgow School of Art (1897-1909)
Amongst his other architectural works are:
- Hill House, Helensburgh (National Trust for Scotland)
- House for an Art Lover, Glasgow
- The Mackintosh House (Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow)
- Queen's Cross church, Glasgow
- Ruchill Church Hall, Glasgow
- Holy Trinity Church, Bridge of Allan, Stirling
- Scotland Street School, Glasgow
- The Willow Rooms, also known as Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms
- Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
- Craigie Hall, Glasgow
- Martyrs' Public School
- The Royal Highland Fusiliers Museum, Glasgow
- Former Daily Record offices, Glasgow
- Former The Herald offices in Mitchell Street
- 78 Derngate, Northampton (for Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke)
- 5 The Drive, Northampton (for Basset-Lowke's brother-in-law)
Towards the end of his life, he became a painter of watercolours, his well-known studies of flowers dating from the years he spent at Walberswick in Suffolk from 1914.
He was married to Margaret MacDonald, a Scottish illustrator whom he had met at the Glasgow School of Art. They worked together on some of his later watercolours.
The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society tries to encourage a greater awareness of the work of Mackintosh as an important architect, artist and designer.
External links
Similar uses of this name include: Charles Macintosh, inventor