Charles Rennie Mackintosh

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Charles Rennie Mackintosh (around 1900)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (actually MacIntosh, he changed the spelling of the family name in the early 1890s; born June 7, 1868 in Glasgow , † December 10, 1928 in London ) was a Scottish architect , interior designer , artisan, designer , graphic artist and painter . Together with his wife Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh , her sister Frances MacDonald McNair and James Herbert McNair he was the founder of the group "The Four", which, among other things, had a decisive influence on the Glasgow School . He was one of the leading figures of the Art Nouveau movement at the end of the 19th century and gave important impulses to modern design. Mackintosh is considered an influential precursor and protagonist of Modern Art . His strictly designed high-backed chairs have become design icons and are copied to the present day. He was an important representative of the arts and crafts movement . His early works showed echoes of symbolism , later it was mainly expressed in geometric shapes.

life and work

Mackintosh grew up the second of eleven children; his father, William MacIntosh, was chief inspector, his mother, Margaret, a housewife. His father, a passionate hobby gardener, encouraged his children to actively work in the garden. This may have been the basis for his later floral design elements. He also drew a lot on rural family excursions: houses, plants and animals. At the age of 16, he joined John Hutchinson's architecture office in 1884 against his father's will , as he distinguished himself from an early age with his artistic skill. Since then he has also attended evening classes at the arts and crafts school . Here he became known with his friends Herbert MacNair and the sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald under the name The Four with notable contributions to the flourishing Glasgow Style of British Art Nouveau . After five years of training, he left the office in 1889 and joined the newly established office of Honeyman and Keppie as a draftsman. In 1890 he won a travel grant and was able to spend a few months in Italy in 1891 . At that time he was already winning several prizes for drawings, painting (also for watercolors ) and architecture.

The early years

Glasgow School of Art

His outstanding work is the Glasgow School of Art, begun in 1896 at Renfrew Street 167, whose rectangular structure is largely strict, clear and seemingly unadorned. The office of Honeyman and Keppie had won the competition, the design came from Mackintosh. From 1907 to 1909 a library was added, including the furniture, also based on a design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Here, too, right angles and straight lines dominate.

Mackintosh also made a name for himself as an interior designer in 1896 with his Art Nouveau designs for the Cranston tea room chain, the realization of which can be seen in the Willow Tearooms in Glasgow. Without financial or artistic specifications, he designed buildings, furniture and interior fittings, which also included his famous chair designs.

The Glasgow School and Tearooms are now quickly helping Mackintosh to achieve international fame. In 1898 the group The Four officially ended their collaboration. However, the friendships continued in another form: in 1899 MacNair married Frances Macdonald, in 1900 Mackintosh married Margaret Macdonald. In her apartment, all the pieces were designed by herself: from the design of the wallpaper and furniture to the cutlery in accordance with the requirement for the overall visual and aesthetic impression of the interior.

The most fertile years

In 1900 Mackintosh and his wife participated very successfully in the eighth exhibition of the Vienna Secession . In 1902, the couple took part in the First International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in Turin to applause .

In the period from 1900 to 1902, Mackintosh not only created important architecture, but also interior furnishings. He designed the publishing house of the Daily Records in 1901 and in the same year took part in the competition of the magazine interior decoration for building including interior and exterior design of the house of an art friend ; these design drawings were groundbreaking for the development of architecture in Europe. Here, as in the Hill House, he combined completely white rooms and rooms paneled with dark oak. The famous Hill House was built between 1902 and 1904 in Helensburgh, north of Glasgow. Many of his projects, including the Hill House, were “total works of art” of architecture and design: designing the exterior, the interior, including furniture, textiles, etc. He often worked with his wife Margaret on the interior .

Its white interiors had a great influence on Joseph Maria Olbrich , but also on the architects and designers of the Wiener Werkstätte Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser . The patron of the Vienna Secession and then the Wiener Werkstätte Fritz Wärndorfer commissioned him in 1902 to design a music salon. As with many other artists of his time, the effects of Japonism were evident .

Together with Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott , he designed series furniture and everyday objects for the furniture manufacturer Karl Schmidt-Hellerau . The artists were given a share of the turnover and their names were given in the product catalogs of the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau , which was a novelty at the time. In 1903/1904 her work was shown in the exhibition Marriage and Household Goods in Dresden .

Mackintosh was able to join as a partner in 1904 and remain until 1913, after having worked out numerous successful plans on behalf of the architects' office Honeyman and Keppie.

The decline

Due to economic difficulties in the industry, the connection to Honeyman and Keppie was broken in 1913. Customers threatened to withdraw Mackintosh's orders due to unreliability. The attempt to work independently failed. In 1914 Mackintosh left Glasgow with his wife to rest in Walberswick, Suffolk. Here he increasingly began to paint watercolors as part of an artist colony. Since the outbreak of the First World War prevented them from moving to friends in Vienna, the childless couple moved to London.

Life became difficult during the war. Mackintosh earned some money by designing "rhythmically patterned" textiles in bright colors for Foxton's and Selfton's, which already bore features of the later Art Deco . Although he continued to have all of his skills, none of his subsequent projects - e. B. Drafts of factory buildings as well as building complexes for shops and offices - realized. His last architectural project in 1920, a radical theater building for Margaret Morris in London, Chelsea, was not approved by the authorities.

The end

Close to financial ruin, the Mackintosh decided to move to the Pyrenees , as the cost of living there was lower than in London. They came to Mont-Louis via Ille-sur-Têt . The 1,600 m altitude should also alleviate Mackintosh's ailing health. In the winter months of 1925 and 1926 they stayed at the Hotel du Commerce in Port-Vendres , which is not far away ; A memorial plaque is attached here today. Mackintosh increasingly painted watercolors of motifs from the area (Port Vendres, Collioure , Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda , Ille-sur-Têt, Mont-Louis). 30 reproductions can be seen in the original places on an art trail ; z. Sometimes the reproductions are now missing (corrosion / damage), such as B. in Colliour No. 14.

While his wife was in London for medical reasons, Mackintosh's disastrous financial situation became evident in his letters to Margaret: He was worried about money for painting supplies and postage. After Margaret's return, they stayed again in Mont-Louis, before Mackintosh became very seriously ill: in 1927, tongue cancer was diagnosed in London. He couldn't pay for the treatment himself. Penniless they wandered through London until Mackintosh died. After Margaret's death four years later, the estate - classified as worthless - was sold for a few pounds: after Mackintosh's death, a mahogany secretary was sold for 21 pounds, which was bought back in 1979 for a million pounds.

Posthumous appreciations

  • In Lisbon there is a house (Casa dos Acores), which is ascribed to a student of Mackintosh.
  • In the late 1970s , his studio , Mackintosh House in Glasgow, was reconstructed as a museum.
  • In 1988, a new variety of roses by David Austin was named after him in honor of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
  • In the 1990s, the House for an Art Lover was built in Bellahouston Park according to Mackintosh's plans from 1901 by the engineer and art lover Graham Roxburgh, which almost drove him to ruin.
  • Esther Freud made Mackintosh the eponymous storyteller in her novel Mein Jahr mit Mr Mac (2016), freely referring to its beginning “decline” during the First World War .
  • Although his house was torn down by the City of Glasgow with a heavy heart in 1963 , the hallway, dark dining room, white drawing room and bedroom in the Hunterian Gallery were given a new home.
  • The City of Glasgow is paying special attention to the life and work of Mackintosh (and his companions) in the anniversary year of his 150th birthday in 2018.
  • Although all four Mackintosh-designed teasalons disappeared over time, the Willow Tea Rooms on Buchanan Street (inspired by the work of Mackintosh) have been operating since 1983 . The Willow Tea Room building at 217 Sauchiehall Street and the neighboring building at 215 were acquired by The Willow Tea Rooms Trust, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organization , and opened in June 2018: the former Tea Room was fully completed and restored and restored to its old purpose. A Mackintosh shop has been set up in the adjoining building; more rooms are to be set up there.

Supplements

  • The Mackintosh Library at the Glasgow School of Art fell victim to a fire in May 2014 caused by gas from mounting foam ignited by a projector. It would have been restored to its original state by 2019.
  • The Glasgow School of Art fell victim to a second fire in June 2018, shortly before the damage from the first fire would have been repaired and the fire protection system could go into operation. It is currently being inspected by experts and large parts of the ruins will have to be demolished as they are unstable. It has not yet been decided whether it will be rebuilt; Experts fear that the building cannot be saved. A call for a fundraiser is supported by well-known people. The director of the art school Tom Inns has announced: “We're going to rebuild the Mackintosh building… it is critically important that the building comes back as the Mackintosh building.”, Although well-known architects demand: “Let some new Mackintosh demonstrate his or her talent."

Buildings

Exhibitions

Works (selection)

  • The Harvest Moon, 1892 (watercolor)

  • In Fairyland, 1897 (watercolor)

  • Room de Luxe after restoration, in the tea room Willow Tearooms

  • Entrance to the Glasgow School of Art (2006)

  • Facade of the Glasgow School of Art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh; Ribbon windows and stone facade surface (2006)

  • Scotland Street School in Glasgow

  • Entrance for the students to Scotland Street School in Glasgow designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

  • Scotland Street School, window element and entrance gate

  • Design for a music and reception room, 1901, in competition for the house of an art lover

  • The Hill House, 1902-1904

  • The Hill House, part of the interior

  • Facade of The Daily Record Building

  • Chair, 1903

  • Secretary, 1903/04

  • Bedroom furniture

  • Still life with anemones, unknown date (watercolor)

  • Das Fort , 1925/26 (pencil and watercolor)

  • Art Trail in Port Vendres: Reproduction of the watercolor 'The Fort Mailly' at the original location

  • This house in Lisbon - Casa dos Acores - is attributed to a student of the Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh

literature

  • Charlotte and Peter Fiell: Charles Rennie Mackintosh 1868–1928 . Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8228-3204-9 , pp. 434f.
  • Lydia L. Dewiel: Crash course Art Nouveau . DuMont Literature and Art Verlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-8321-5384-5 .
  • Nathaniel Harris: The Life and Works of Rennie Mackintosh . Parragon, Bristol 1996, ISBN 0-7525-1445-8 .
  • Jean-Claude Garcias: Macintosh, Charles Rennie . Birkhäuser Verlag , Basel, Boston, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-7643-1973-9 .

Web links

Commons : Charles Rennie Mackintosh  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ realized in Glasgow in the 1990s according to the original plans
  2. ^ Charlotte and Peter Fiell: Charles Rennie Mackintosh 1868–1928. Cologne 2004, p. 435
  3. ^ Charlotte and Peter Fiell: Charles Rennie Mackintosh 1868–1928. Cologne 2004, p. 434f
  4. ^ William Foxton Ltd., textile designs, including by Mackintosh (1918)
  5. ^ Charlotte and Peter Fiell: Charles Rennie Mackintosh 1868–1928. Cologne 2004, p. 435
  6. ↑ Website of the Port-Vendres community ( memento of July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 6, 2019
  7. ^ Tate, London Charles Rennie Mackintosh Fetges c.1927, Watercolor on paper , August 12, 2017
  8. ↑ Art Trail website , accessed on October 22, 2013
  9. ↑ a b c d newspaper article of the FAZ - Reiseblatt - No. 3 page R 1 of January 4, 2018 : "At home with the Snow Kings", accessed on January 8, 2018
  10. ↑ My year with Mr Mac . Berlin Verlag, Munich - Berlin 2016. ISBN 978-3-8270-1268-5
  11. ^ The Hunterian website: The Mackintosh House , accessed January 8, 2018
  12. ↑ The Glasgow Mackintosh group website , accessed January 8, 2018
  13. ^ The Willow Tea Rooms website , accessed January 8, 2018
  14. ^ Website of The Willow Tea Rooms Trust , accessed January 8, 2018
  15. ↑ Guardian online newspaper article of Nov. 26, 2014 : “Glasgow School of Art fire caused by gases from foam canister, says report”, accessed August 4, 2018
  16. ↑ Guardian online newspaper article of 16 Jun 2018 : “'Heartbreaking': fire guts Glasgow School of Art for second time”, accessed on 25 July 2018
  17. ↑ BBC online newspaper article of June 24, 2018 : “Glasgow School of Art fire safety system 'was weeks away'”, accessed July 25, 2018
  18. ↑ Guardian online newspaper article, June 28, 2018 : “Large part of Glasgow School of Art to be urgently dismantled”, accessed July 25, 2018
  19. ↑ New York Times online newspaper article, June 16, 2018 : “Glasgow Jewel Goes Up in Flames for Second Time in 4 Years”, accessed July 25, 2018
  20. ↑ Guardian online newspaper article, July 10, 2018 : “Mackintosh building will be rebuilt, says Glasgow School of Art director”, accessed August 4, 2018
  21. ↑ Guardian online newspaper article of 15 Jul 2018 : “Glasgow School of Art - ready to rise from the ashes once more”, accessed on 4 August 2018
personal data
SURNAME Mackintosh, Charles Rennie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish architect, interior designer, artisan, designer, printmaker and painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1928
Place of death London