Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Mackintosh was born in Glasgow, Scotland and died in London, England. He is among the most important figures of the Modern Style.

• Birth Name — Charles Rennie McIntosh • Born — 7 June 1868 • Birthplace — Townhead, Glasgow, Scotland • Died — 10 December 1928 • Education — Glasgow School of Art • Known for — Architecture, Art, Design, Decorative Arts • Notable Works — Glasgow School of Art, The Willow Tearooms, Hill House, Queen's Cross Church, Scotland Street School • Style — Symbolism, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Glasgow Style • Movement — Glasgow Style, Art Nouveau, Symbolism • Spouse — Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born at 70 Parson Street, Townhead, Glasgow, on 7 June 1868, the fourth of eleven children and second son of William McIntosh, a superintendent and chief clerk of the City of Glasgow Police. He attended Reid's Public School and the Allan Glen's Institution from 1880 to 1883.[1][2] William's wife Margaret Mackintosh née 'Rennie' grew up in the Townhead and Dennistoun (Firpark Terrace) areas of Glasgow.[3]

He changed the spelling of his name from 'McIntosh' to 'Mackintosh' for unknown reasons, as his father did before him, around 1893.[5] Confusion continues to surround the use of his name with 'Rennie' sometimes incorrectly substituted for his first name of 'Charles'. The modern use of 'Rennie Mackintosh' as a surname is also incorrect and he was never known as such in his lifetime;[6] 'Rennie' being a middle name (his mother's maiden name) which he used often in writing his name. Signatures took various forms including 'C.R. Mackintosh' and 'Chas. R. Mackintosh.' The usage of "Rennie Mackintosh" to refer to him is therefore incorrect and he should instead be referred to as "Charles Rennie Mackintosh" or "Mackintosh". Mackintosh is also sometimes referred to affectionately as 'Toshie', a nickname seen in correspondence and other contemporary literature written by friends and family members.

• Illustration — "The Harvest Moon", 1892 painting Mackintosh entered the architectural profession in 1884 as an apprentice to John Hutchinson in Glasgow and in the evenings studied at Glasgow School of Art (situated then in Sauchiehall Street) where he became a prize-winning student. In 1889 he joined Honeyman and Keppie (John Honeyman and John Keppie), a major architectural practice as a draughtsman and designer, where in 1901 he became a partner.[7] His early design work as a draughtsman and lead designer can be seen from 1893 in the interior of Craigie Hall, Dumbreck, and in the new saloon and gallery of Glasgow Art Club, 185 Bath Street for which he signed the drawings.[8] • Illustration — The Room de Luxe in the Willow Tearooms as it was in 1903, with furniture and interior design by Mackintosh and Macdonald Around 1892, Mackintosh met fellow artist Margaret Macdonald at the Glasgow School of Art. He and fellow student Herbert MacNair, also an apprentice at Honeyman and Keppie, were introduced to Margaret and her sister Frances MacDonald by the head of the Glasgow School of Art, Francis Henry Newbery, who saw similarities in their work.[9] Margaret and Charles married on 22 August 1900.[10] The couple had no children.[11] MacNair and Frances also married the previous year. The group worked collaboratively and came to be known as "The Four (artists)", and were prominent figures in Glasgow Style art and design. Mackintosh and Margaret married, setting up their first home in Mains Street on Blythswood Hill, the street later being renamed as Blythswood Street, Glasgow.[12] Subsequently, they moved to Southpark Avenue, close to Glasgow University. In the early 1910s the partnership known from 1901 as Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh declined in profitability, and in 1913 Mackintosh resigned from the partnership and attempted to open his own practice.[13]

Although moderately popular (for a period) in his native Scotland, most of Mackintosh's more ambitious designs were not built. Designs for various buildings for the 1901 Glasgow International Exhibition were not constructed,[17] neither was his "Haus eines Kunstfreundes" (Art Lover's House) of the same year. He competed in the 1903 design competition for Liverpool Cathedral, but failed to gain a place on the shortlist[18] (the winner was Giles Gilbert Scott). Other unbuilt Mackintosh designs include: • Railway Terminus • Concert Hall • Alternative Concert Hall • Bar and Dining Room • Exhibition Hall • Science and Art Museum • Chapter House The House for An Art Lover (1901) was built in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow after his death (1989–1996).[19] An Artist's Cottage and Studio (1901),[20] known as The Artist's Cottage, was completed at Farr by Inverness in 1992. The architect was Robert Hamilton Macintyre acting for Dr and Mrs Peter Tovell.[21] Illustrations can be found on the RCAHMS Canmore site.[23] The first of the unexecuted Gate Lodge, Auchinbothie (1901) sketches[24] was realised as a mirrored pair of gatehouses to either side of the Achnabechan[25] and The Artist's Cottage drives, also at Farr by Inverness. Known as North House and South House, these were completed 1995–1997.[26] Mackintosh's architectural output was small, but he did influence European design. Popular in Austria and Germany, his work received acclaim when it was shown at the Vienna Secession Exhibition in 1900. It was also exhibited in Budapest, Hungary, Munich, Germany, Dresden, Venice, Italy and Moscow, Russia.

Later in life, disillusioned with architecture, Mackintosh worked largely as a watercolourist, painting numerous landscapes and flower studies (often in collaboration with Margaret, with whose style Mackintosh's own gradually converged). They moved to the Suffolk village of Walberswick in 1914. There Mackintosh was suspected of being a German spy and briefly arrested in 1915 during World War I.[31] By 1923, the Mackintoshes had moved to Port Vendres,[32] a Mediterranean coastal town in southern France with a warm climate that was a comparably cheaper location in which to live. Mackintosh had entirely abandoned architecture and design and concentrated on watercolour painting. He was interested in the relationships between man-made and naturally occurring landscapes and created a large portfolio of architecture and landscape watercolour paintings. Many of his paintings depict Port Vendres, a small port near the Spanish border, and the landscapes of Roussillon. The local Charles Rennie Mackintosh Trail details his time in Port Vendres and shows the paintings and their locations.[33] The couple remained in France for two years, before being forced to return to London in 1927 due to illness. • Illustration — 12 Porchester Square in the foreground on the left, and number 26 in the far distance on the right That year, Mackintosh had developed a lump in his tongue and a doctor friend in Port Vendres recommended that he return to London for treatment.[34] In London, after a diagnosis of tongue cancer, a friend Jessie Newbery arranged for treatment at Westminster Hospital where the lump was surgically removed. Their friends Randolph & Birdie Schwabe found a home for Mackintosh to convalesce on Willow Road in Hampstead, where he could sit under a willow tree that reminded him of Sauchiehall Street. Another friend Margaret Morris visited him there, and firstly tried to help him with voice exercises to strengthen his voice which had been weakened by the surgery, but when that failed she tried to teach him sign language. A dispute with the upstairs neighbours in Hampstead forced Mackintosh and his wife to quickly seek other lodgings, and another friend Desmond Chapman-Huston offered his home at 12 Porchester Square, Bayswater, returning the hospitality that they had shown him whenever he had visited them in Glasgow. After a relapse Mackintosh was admitted to a nursing home just along the road at 26 Porchester Square where he died on 10 December 1928 at the age of 60. He was cremated the next day at Golders Green Crematorium in London. His ashes were scattered, in accordance with his wishes, over the Mediterranean at Port Vendres from one of the rocks he had painted.[35]

• Illustration — The front (north) CM Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art on Renfrew Street, Garnethill in Glasgow, Scotland • Illustration — Glasgow. Statue of Mackintosh, unveiled on the 90th anniversary of his death. Sculptor: Andy Scott Mackintosh's work grew in popularity in the decades following his death. A number of posthumous presentations of his designs have been implemented. The Mackintosh House (1981) is a dedicated structure by William Whitfield to house the reconstructed interiors of the Mackintoshes former Glasgow home (sited nearby and demolished in 1963). The house forms an integral part of The University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery home to the world's largest collection of Mackintosh's work. The Artist's Cottage project, three unrealised designs from 1901, were constructed as interpretations near Inverness in 1992 and 1995. The House for an Art Lover was built and opened in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park in 1996. It operates as an arts and cultural centre, being the interpretation of a design competition portfolio in 1901 by Mackintosh and Macdonald. Mackintosh's design language continues to be echoed in modern buildings in Glasgow - for instance the replacement Glasgow Sheriff Court, built in the 1980s to a design by the successor firm to Mackintosh's old employer - Keppie Design - incorporates many interior features which are a modern interpretation of Mackintosh's style. The Glasgow School of Art building (now "The Mackintosh Building") is cited by architectural critics as among the finest buildings in the UK. On 23 May 2014 the building was ravaged by fire. The library was destroyed, but firefighters managed to save the rest of the building.[37] On 15 June 2018, about a year before completion of the restoration of the building the School was again struck by fire. This second fire caused catastrophic damage, effectively destroying all the interiors and leaving the outer walls so structurally unstable that large sections of them had to be taken down to prevent uncontrolled collapse. Such was the concern that a public commitment to faithfully rebuild The Mackintosh Building was made post-fire by then Director of The Glasgow School of Art, Tom Inns. • Illustration — Scotland Street school in Glasgow The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society encourages greater awareness of the work of Mackintosh as an architect, artist and designer. The rediscovery of Mackintosh as a significant figure in design has been attributed to the designation of Glasgow as European City of Culture in 1990,[38] and exhibition of his work which accompanied the year-long festival. His enduring popularity since has been fuelled by further exhibitions and books and memorabilia which have illustrated aspects of his life and work. The growth in public interest has led to refurbishment of long-neglected buildings and increased public access: Scotland Street School Museum housed in Mackintosh's 1906 school building opened in 1990. 78 Derngate Northampton opened as a visitor attraction in 2003. The Willow Tea Rooms re-opened following an extensive restoration in 2018. • Illustration — Washstand designed by Mackintosh (1904), featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition in 1996–1997 The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City held a major retrospective exhibition of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's works from 21 November 1996 to 16 February 1997. In conjunction with the exhibit were lectures and a symposium by scholars, including Pamela Robertson of the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow art gallery owner Roger Billcliffe, and architect J. Stewart Johnson, and screening of documentary films about Mackintosh.[39] Charles Rennie Mackintosh was commemorated on a series of banknotes issued by the Clydesdale Bank in 2009; his image appeared on an issue of £100 notes.[40] In 2012, one of the largest collections of art by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Four Glasgow School was sold at auction in Edinburgh for £1.3m. The sale included work by Mackintosh's sister-in-law Frances Macdonald and her husband Herbert MacNair.[41] In July 2015 it was announced that Mackintosh's designs for a tearoom would be reconstructed to form a display in Dundee's new V&A museum. Although the original building which housed the tearoom on Glasgow's Ingram Street was demolished in 1971 the interiors had all been dismantled and put into storage.[42] The restored "Oak Room" was revealed when V&A Dundee opened to the public on 15 September 2018. • Illustration — Charles Rennie Mackintosh Cabinet, Royal Ontario Museum In June 2018, a mural depicting Mackintosh and using elements of his distinctive style was created in Glasgow to honour the 150th anniversary of the artist's birth.[43] It is made by Glasgow street artist, Rogue One and commissioned by the Radisson Red. From 6 October 2019 – 5 January 2020, the Walters Art Museum exhibited Designing the New: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style exploring his work and the artists and craftspeople who worked with him. The exhibit traveled to the Frist Art Museum 11 June–12 September 2021.[44] From 1986 until 1992, InterCity locomotive 86226 was named Charles Rennie Mackintosh. In March 2018, Virgin Trains West Coast named 390008 Charles Rennie Mackintosh.[45]