Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh 1868 to 1927

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in Glasgow on 7 June 1868. He trained as an architect in a local firm and studied art & design at evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art.

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Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born one of eleven children in the Townhead area of Glasgow, close to Glasgow Cathedral. From these beginnings, he has become one of the most celebrated architects of his generation.

He met Margaret Macdonald, his future wife, at Glasgow School of Art and much of what can be seen in the buildings and collections involves their artistic collaboration. You will also witness his masterful handling of light and space and see many of the well-known pieces of furniture which have themselves become icons.

Mackintosh took his inspiration from our Scottish traditions and blended them with the flourish of Art Nouveau and the simplicity of Japanese forms. Much of his work has survived. It can be seen today alongside that of his close collaborators in the group known as "The Four" and the other artists and designers who collectively created "The Glasgow Style".





Desk - This handsome desk contains silvered metal panels by Margaret Macdonald. They show stylized female figures which represent old and new styles of writing. The desk has doors at the sides that give access to shelving and storage for papers and drawings.



Cheval mirror, for the bedroom - The mirror was described, when it was exhibited at the VIII Vienna Secession exhibition in 1900, as being like an upturned sledge, and it has a powerful presence.

The side panels seem to spring up from the base and stretch plant-lie to the top. It formed part of the bedroom suite designed by Mackintosh in 1900 for his new marital home at 120 Mains Street, Glasgow.

The suite is now displayed in the bedroom of The Mackintosh House, Hunterian Art Gallery



Bracket light fitting - These fittings were designed for the bedroom of Mackintosh’s first important house, Windyhill, in 1901.

Two examples are displayed in the bedroom of The Mackintosh House, Hunterian Art Gallery.



Interior hall of The Hill House, 1903



Armchair - This is a particularly elegant chair, with its slender arms and legs.

It is the only known occasion on which Mackintosh used leather as an upholstery.



Stencil decorations in the ladies' tea room, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, 1897



Poster for Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts 1895

Glasgow School of Arthttp://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=55.866024,-4.263779&spn=0.000724,0.00195&z=19

Mackintosh developed an artistic relationship with Margaret MacDonald, Frances Macdonald and Herbert McNair. Known as "The Four", they exhibited posters, furnishings, and a variety of graphic designs in Glasgow, London, Vienna and Turin. These exhibitions helped establish Mackintosh's reputation.



Detail from front entrance of Glasgow School of Art

Hill House

With a design philosophy solidly rooted in Scottish tradition, Mackintosh disregarded the architecture of Greece and Rome as unsuitable for the climate or needs Scotland. He believed that a revival of the Scottish Baronial style, adapted to modern society would meet contemporary needs. His buildings clearly demonstrate this belief. greatbuildings.com



Mackintosh created buildings notable for the elegance and clarity of their spatial concepts, the skillful exploitation of natural and artificial lighting, and skillful detailing. He felt that each design should work as a whole to which each carefully contrived detail contributes. greatbuildings.com

"Hill House, the largest and finest of Mackintosh's domestic buildings, . . . occupies a hillside side that looks out over the Clyde estuary, and is surrounded by grounds meticulously landscaped by Mackintosh, who went to the extent of instructing that the trees be clipped according to his manner of drawing them.

"Built from local sandstone and rough-cast rendered, the house bears the image of Scottish baronial traditions. For the interior, Mackintosh designed fireplaces, furnishings and fittings. His attentions extended from the design of built-in wardrobes for the white bedroom to the detailing in a superb set of pewter fire tongs and poker. Walls in the house were generally white, some with delicate stencil designs in pale greens, pinks, and silver.” greatbuildings.com



"Mackintosh saw building not as a single creative act, but as a social process in which the adaptation of the original design to suit the changing needs of the client was vital. He altered the design of Hill House, for example, while building progressed, to accommodate a nursery for a new baby -- an unexpected addition to the Blackie family.” greatbuildings.com


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Scotland Street school in Glasgow 1903

Willow Tea Room

Bellahouston Park, G lasgow. Designed in 1901 by Mackintosh 1902 exhibit of Modern Decorative Art s in Tur in and the 1931 Exhibition of the Vienna Secessi on School solidified h is pl ace in the history of design.

interior of a Mack intosh - designed h ou se formerly at 78 Southpark Avenue, Glasgow, where he lived from 1906 - 191 4 .

1906 The dining room of Mack intosh's home as reconstructed at the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow Univer s ity. According to Moffat and Baxter, like the dining rooms at Windy hill and Hi ll House, th is one is "a dark - co loured ro o m which directed attention to the dinner table. This wo uld have been laid with silver cultery, sparkl ing gl ass, and lit by ca ndles. . . . Mackinto sh covered the walls with coarse grey - brown wrapping pape r andf sten cilled them with a rose and lattice motif enlved by silver - painted dots" (p. 57 ). Mack intosh orig inally des igned the famous chairs for Miss Cranston's Argyle Stre e t Tea Roo ms.

Furniture

This h and - crafted dining room table and eight ch airs is the first produced from Charles Rennie Mackin tosh’s own spe cifica tions for Sculpt Art Creations.

The Hill Ho use dates from 19 0 4 and t he chair, one of four origin ally made for the hall, is h and - crafted in the finest oak.

The Argyle Chair, the earliest and most characteristic of Mackintosh's famous high- backed chairs, designed in 1897 for the Argyle Street Tea Rooms

HIGH BACK CHAIR

WILLOW CHAIR



Glass & Metal

In 1913 Mackintosh left the firm of Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh where he had been a partner since 1904. After unsuccessfully trying to establish his own practice, he dedicated his time to landscape painting. He returned to England in 1927 for treatment of cancer of the tongue.

An outstanding architect, furniture designer, and painter, who pioneered the Modern Movement in Scotland, Mackintosh's works exist as the greatest flowering of the British Arts & Crafts movement in either Scotland or England. Mackintosh died in London in 1928.



“A distinctive style that's part Art Nouveau, Part Vienna Secession. While there are other typefaces that try to capture this style, this new revival is the most accurate. This beautiful family comes in three versions--Normal, Bold, and Ornaments, which include both ornaments and special reversed letters and numbers. While this is an all-cap face, the lower case provides interesting alternate characters (notice how the "A" and "H" have three cross bars in the upper case, but only two in the lower, and how the "M" "N" and "O" are different. But there are subtle differences between the upper and lower case in almost every letter, giving you a range of choices”.

Rennie Mackintosh

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