Frances MacDonald McNair

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Frances Macdonald about 1895

Frances MacDonald McNair (born August 24, 1873 in Kidsgrove , Staffordshire , England , † December 12, 1921 in Glasgow , Scotland ) was a Scottish painter and art nouveau artisan . Frances MacDonald McNair, her husband James Herbert McNair , her sister Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh and her husband Charles Rennie Mackintosh formed the well-known artist group The Four .

life and work

Frances MacDonald was born in England as the second daughter of a mining engineer. In 1890 the family settled in Glasgow , where Frances and her sister Margaret studied at the Glasgow School of Art . There they soon met Charles Rennie Mackintosh and James Herbert McNair , whose understanding of art in terms of content, technology and form corresponded to their conception. The four soon formed a creative alliance and first introduced their avant-garde new art in 1894, which attracted a great deal of attention and made it known as The Four . Together they shaped the Glasgow Style in the Arts and Crafts Movement and exerted a great influence on the development of Art Nouveau. Frances dropped out of school in the mid-1890s and set up an independent studio with her sister in the center of town. Together they worked on metal, graphic, textile designs and book illustrations and were able to show their work in London, Liverpool and Venice. During this time she also became a leading member of the Glasgow Girls , a group of women designers and artists. Frances and Margret MacDonald were influenced by William Blake and Aubrey Beardsley , but also by symbolism and the decorative movements on the continent such as the Vienna Secession .

On June 14, 1899, Frances married her long-time friend James Herbert McNair and followed him to Liverpool, where McNair taught at the School of Architecture and Applied Art . The couple designed the interiors of their apartment at 54 Oxford Street and exhibited a Lady's Writing Room at the Turin International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts . Frances also began teaching and developed remarkable skills in jewelry and textile crafts. Their son Sylvan was born on June 18, 1900.

The closure of the college in 1905 led to a gradual decline in her artistic career. In addition, there were financial failures due to bad investments. From 1907, Frances gave regular art classes at the Glasgow School of Art . In 1908 the couple finally moved back to Glasgow. In the years that followed, Frances created a moving series of symbolist watercolors that explored the themes of marriage and motherhood . However, their exhibitions were unsuccessful, so that no more followed after 1912. The couple traveled to Canada in 1913 , but returned to Scotland in 1914 before the outbreak of World War I. Frances MacDonald McNair died in Glasgow in 1921. James Herbert McNair, of whom no artistic work has survived from 1911 until his death in 1955, destroyed a large part of her works. Her son Sylvan emigrated to Rhodesia in the late 1920s . Most of her paintings are now at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

Symbolistic watercolors

  • The Choice

  • Woman Standing Behind The Sun

  • Man Makes The Beads Of Life

  • Prudence and Desire

Exhibitions

literature

Web links

Commons : Frances MacDonald  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME MacDonald McNair, Frances
ALTERNATIVE NAMES MacDonald, Frances
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Kidsgrove , Staffordshire , England
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1921
Place of death Glasgow , Scotland