The artist who lived
by this idealistic motto would be shocked to know he's now a brand.
Sadly, it's much harder to obtain historical information about
Charles Rennie MacKintosh online than to buy reproductions of his and
other designs in the so-called 'Glasgow Style' he developed with three
colleagues.
No doubt he would be
equally pained by how thoroughly his posthumous celebrity has subsumed
the identity of his wife and constant collaborator, Margaret Macdonald
MacKintosh ... as well as those of Frances and Herbert MacNair,
now remembered mainly as Margaret's sister and Charles' best
friend. Often attributions are confused, not least because many of
their early projects and exhibitions were shared.
While rejecting the
term 'stylist,' these four in close association evolved an integrated
vocabulary of decorative forms and an overall look that was uniquely
their own, despite owing debts to William Morris, Aubrey Beardsley,
the Dutch symbolist painter Jan Toorop and Japanese design
generally. Eliminating what Charles called 'antiquarian ornament,'
they achieved a
pared down version of Art Nouveau that paved the way for Art Deco and
Modernist Minimalism. A Scottish spirit was infused by means of
heathery colors and mystical Celtic symbols.
|
|
 |
|
'Toshie'
& 'Herbie' - 1890 |
Margaret
& Frances - 1894 |
This innovative quartet teamed up
while studying at The Glasgow School of Art (later rebuilt as Charles'
architectural masterpiece). English-born but with family in
Glasgow, the inseparable Macdonald sisters were enrolled as day students
in the early 1890s and the two young men, native Glaswegians associated
with the same architectural practice, attended evening classes.
Independently, each pair had embarked upon similar experiments in
drawing, watercolor painting and decoration. Noting a strong
affinity in content, as well as technique and form,
the school's astute director introduced them and the creative alliance
forged was immediately successful. When their avant-garde 'New
Art' appeared at the next student show, it attracted praise and they
were christened The Four.
Herbert, having
completed his studies and apparently abandoned architectural
aspirations, set up a studio in 1895. The Macdonald sisters did
likewise in 1896 and the group worked together with increasing frequency
to produce, besides paintings and posters, ornamental and functional
items in stained glass, metal and other materials. Some of these were shown at the 1896 London Arts & Crafts Society
Exhibition, where Gleeson White, an important critic who edited The Studio, was sufficiently intrigued to visit Glasgow and meet them. In the following year he published two articles celebrating the Glasgow Style.
Charles, like the rest, dreamed of
unifying the fine and applied arts. Ultimately responsible for
more than 400 furniture designs, he took special interest in wood during
this period ... while losing interest in his fiancée, the boss'
daughter. Artistically inspired and influenced by Margaret, four years his
senior, he drew closer to her, just as the budding romance between
Frances and Herbert became a long-distance affair with his 1898
appointment as Instructor of Design for Liverpool's School of
Architecture and Applied Art.
Love duly won out on
both fronts: The MacNairs wed in 1899, Frances moved to
Liverpool and, in preference to Margaret's etheral outlook, Jessie Keppie's clever
business head got the axe, a blow Charles tried to soften with an enchanting treasure box.
His
declaration of love to Margaret was no less tangible, conveyed by
a whimsical image titled Part Seen, Imagined Part.
Defection from Jessie was simpler than disentanglement from the Honeyman and Keppie firm, due to major projects underway (notably the Art School of Glasgow contract which Charles' design won for them in 1896). Phased construction didn't finish there until 1909, long before which he'd been made a partner despite marriage to Margaret in 1900 ... the same year when they teamed to decorate Kate Cranston's fashionable Ingram Street Tea Rooms, their
individual styles so attuned their work was virtually
indistinguishable.
Also
in 1900, each of The Four was invited to furnish and decorate a room at the 8th Secessionist
Exhibition in Vienna ... then a hotbed of modernity, home to such
seminal 20th century figures as Freud, Wittgenstein, Schoenberg, Mahler,
Herzl, the architect Otto Wagner and the painter Gustav Klimt, whom Margaret's art strongly influenced.
Klimt and Wagner led the Secessionist Movement, a band of radical
artists and designers who chose to secede from the
repressive Künstlerhaus in 1897 and host their own shows. The
Glasgow Style proved popular in Eastern Europe and further exhibitions
ensued, bringing the group recognition in Munich, Dresden,
Budapest and other cities.
Soon Charles and Margaret
were busy creating a music salon for
Viennese financier Fritz Wärndorfer,
whose generous backing enabled Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser to launch the
Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) in 1903. In an
era dominated by factory production and slavish imitation of the past,
the Werkstätte sought to revive meticulous craftsmanship and eliminate
familiar historical and naturalistic motifs. Its philosophy was
based on the principle of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), which
integrated all related design elements into a cohesive aesthetic
statement. Clearly this was right up Charles and Margaret's
street.
Over
the next several years, the MacKintosh star rose higher, while MacNair
fortunes sadly waned. Charles'
architectural credentials opened doors to major commissions for himself
and Margaret. By contrast, Herbert and Frances were tied to Liverpool
... both teaching art for a pittance, executing small-scale decorative
commissions for friends and surviving largely on an allowance from his
father. Grudgingly given, since the senior MacNair wanted his son
to be an engineer, the income ended with bankruptcy of the MacNair
family's shipping firm. Herbert and Frances' situation wasn't
improved by the birth of a child, nor by return to Glasgow circa
1906. Only limited assistance was extended by the Macdonald
family, staid lawyer types who ultimately disowned them.
By then Charles ...
although on better terms than Herbert with the Macdonalds, having risen
to greater standing from more humble origins ... was in a deep
depression, drinking heavily. Work on the Glasgow School of Art
had ceased to be an idyllic endeavor after Eugene Bourdon arrived in 1904 as the GSA's first Professor of Architecture. He vigorously complained about the MacKintoshes' style and Glasgow was growing generally more repressive. Few commissions would
follow.
Ironically, the
perfectionism we recognize as the stamp of MacKintosh designs ...
refined in every particular, even beyond hand-stenciled walls and
lampshades to custom-crafted hardware ... contributed vastly to Charles
and Margaret's downfall. This obsession for detail alienated
clients and suppliers, as did Charles' prima donna attitude. Another irony was
that they suffered during World War I for their greatest successes,
being shunned as suspected spies due to extensive contacts with German
and Austrian artists and patrons. Their final years were spent
painting in relative obscurity, while living in England from 1914 until
1923 and subsequently in the south of France.
The youngest of the
group died first: Frances at the age of 47. Rumors of
suicide attended her demise in 1921 and these were given credence by her
husband's vow never to design or paint again. In
1928, Charles died
at 60 and Margaret lived only a few years more, expiring in 1933 at
69. Herbert, after a lackluster career including stints as a
postman and garage manager, burned a large trunk containing his artwork
and Frances' during the 1940's, then retired to an old folks' home where
he died in 1955, aged 87. They were survived only by Sylvan
MacNair, who was born to Frances and Herbert in 1900 and at some point
emigrated to South Africa.
NEXT
