The Sisters

of Glasgow

Margaret & Frances

Macdonald

The Rose Gallery 153 W. Regent St. Glasgow, G2 2R United Kingdom Charles Rennie Mackintosh The group known as ‘The Four’ Keppie, and the sisters were day comprised Charles Rennie students at Glasgow School of Art. Mackintosh, James Herbert McNair They formed an informal creative (1868 - 1955), and the sisters, alliance which produced innovative Margaret Macdonald (1864 - 1933) and at times controversial graphics Frances Macdonald and Frances Macdonald (1873 - and decorative art designs. All four 1921). The artists met as young artists were heavily influenced by students at Glasgow School of Art Aubrey Beardsley and Jan Toorop, in the mid 1890s. Mackintosh and whose work “The Three Brides” McNair were close friends and is considered to be of primary fellow apprentice architects in the significance in the development of Glasgow practice of Honeyman and the Glasgow Style.

Margaret Macdonald

James Herbert McNair Frances Macdonald (1873-1921) Margaret Macdonald (1864-1933)

Frances Macdonald’s achievements at Glasgow School of Art where thread them and Tis a long Margaret was one of the most influenced by mysticism, symbol- to her almost every day. These are less well known than those of she met Mackintosh and path which wanders to desire gifted and successful women ism and Celtic imagery. Her early letters are very important, as they her sister, Margaret Macdonald. Herbert McNair. are no doubt a reflection of artists in Scotland at the turn work c.1893-97, belongs to what give an insight into how much he In part this is due to the loss of this. The couple returned to of the century. Her output was came to be known as the ‘Spook loves and admires Margaret. He much of her work, destroyed by In the mid 1890s Frances left the Glasgow in 1908. It was in the wide-ranging and included School’ of Celtic expression. Her says that “he merely has talent, her husband, Herbert McNair, School and set up an independent following years that Macdonald watercolours, graphics, metalwork collaboration with Mackintosh and she Margaret has genius”, after her death, and in part to the studio in the city centre with her painted a moving series of and textiles. Arguably her greatest comprised primarily the produc- and on another occasion he tells fact that she left Glasgow in 1899. sister. Together they collaborated symbolist watercolours achievements were in gesso, a tion of panels for interiors and her to always remember that she Nonetheless she produced some on metalwork, graphics, textile addressing somber themes plaster-based medium, which she furniture, notably for the Willow was half of all his architectural of the most powerful imagery of designs and book illustrations, related to marriage, mother- used to make decorative panels Tearooms 1904, the Warndorfer work. Ill health and the strain the Glasgow Style, and her late exhibiting in London, Liver- hood and the plight of women. for furniture and interiors. Music Salon in Vienna and The of Mackintosh’s declining career symbolist watercolours are moving pool and Venice. Her work Frances McNair died in 1921 at Hill House. Heady times ensued contributed to a decline in her meditations on the choices and development has much in the age of 47, reportedly of a Macdonald was born in Tipton almost from the moment of own output and no work after facing women. common with those of her sister, cerebral hemorrhage, although near Wolverhampton, England their marriage. While exhibiting 1921 is known. Margaret died in although her figures tend to be rumor persisted that she had and came to Glasgow with her with the Secessionists in Vienna, London in 1933, five years after Frances was born in England and more emaciated and anguished. taken her own life. After family around 1890. She enrolled they acquired friends among the her husband. moved to Glasgow with her family Like Margaret’s, her work is her death, Herbert McNair as a day student at Glasgow luminaries of Eastern Europe by 1890. She enrolled as a student characterized by an interest in destroyed most of her work, as School of Art, c.1893 where she and her miniatures incorporat- The largest single holding of her symbolism, mythology and fairy well as his own. met Charles Rennie Mackintosh ing substances like sandstone and work is housed at the Hunte- subjects. Following her marriage and his friend, Herbert McNair. pearl were revelatory to Klimt. A rian Art Gallery, University of in 1899 to Herbert McNair, she The largest single holding She left the School in the mid significant commission was also Glasgow. For further informa- joined him in Liverpool where of her work is housed at the 1890s and set up an independent gained there: the Warndorfer tion, consulted. Jude Burkhauser, McNair was by then teaching Hunterian Art Gallery, Univer- studio in the city with her Music Salon, destroyed in World ‘Glasgow Girls’, Canongate Press design at the School of Architec- sity of Glasgow. For further sister, Frances. War I. (The surviving panel from 1990 and Janice Helland, ‘The ture and Applied Art. The couple information consulted. Jude her Seven Princesses series hangs Studios of Frances Macdonald designed the interiors of their Burkhauser, ‘Glasgow Girls’, Margaret and her sister worked in the Vienna Arts and Crafts and Margaret Macdonald’, Man- home at 54 Oxford Street and Canongate Press, 1990 and together until Frances’s marriage Museum opposite works by Klimt chester University Press, 1995. exhibited a Writing Room at the Janice Helland, ‘The Studios to James Herbert McNair and that reflect her influence.) The International Exhibition of Mod- of Frances Macdonald and departure for Liverpool in 1899. precise nature of their partnership ern Art, Turin. Macdonald also Margaret Macdonald’, Mackintosh and Margaret mar- is difficult to define, because little started teaching, and developed University Press, 1995. ried in 1900, remaining in documentation survives. How- skills in jewelry, enamel work and Glasgow till 1914, when they ever it is certain that Macdonald embroidery. The closure of the moved to London. played an important role in the School in the early 1900s led to development of the decorative, a gradual decline in their careers, Collaboration was key to symbolic interiors of the early compounded by the loss of the Margaret Macdonald’s creativity. 1900s, including the House for McNair family wealth through The partnership with her sister an Art Lover portfolio, the Rose business failures. McNair had at 128 Hope Street, in the 1890s Boudoir, Turin and the Willow little success as a watercolorist and produced metalwork, graphics, Tea Rooms. life for the couple was difficult. and a series of book illustrations Such late works as Man makes developing a distinctive style In 1914 she and Charles settled the beads of life but women in England, living in Chelsea 1916-23, and then at Port Vendres in the French Pyrenees 1923-27. Few works have come to light from these later years. In 1926 Margaret goes to London for medical treatment, and while she is there Mackintosh writes a series of letters to her. Indeed, he writes 1864 born on November the 1893 Margaret and her sister 5th in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, Frances enrolled at the England. Frances Macdonald and Margaret Macdonald, Glasgow School of Art as day students. The Birth and Death of the Winds 3-panel Screen , 1893-96, Frances Macdonald, 1873 born on August 24 in Carved chestnut with inset raised copper panels, 162.5 x 152.3 cm Exactly how and when they Design for the center panel for The Birth and Death of Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, all first met each other is not England. the Winds screen, 1893-96, pencil and ink on brown clear but it’s most likely that fellow student Jessie Keppie tracing paper, 36.6 x 51.1 cm had a hand in it, as Mackin- 1877 enrolled in the extremely tosh was by now working with progressive Orme Girls’ School her brother John and Macnair in North Staffordshire, pioneer in the firm of Honeyman in the field of female education. & Keppie.

After leaving Orme’s, Margaret 1893 Article in The Magazine, studied in Germany. She spoke published by students at The both French and German. Glasgow School of Art. This is a commentary on students work which directed almost all Margaret Macdonald, All this is very much parallel the attention to the “brilliant to the role of Fra Newberry Design for the right panel for The Birth and Death of the Winds screen, sisters Macdonald” and his vision of The Glasgow 1893-96, pencil and ink on brown tracing paper, 53.3 x 42.3 cm School of Art. Newberry was headmaster of GSA from 1894 Mackintosh’s engagement 1885 - 1917. to Jessie Keppie is terminated, and it is around this time that he and Margaret committed 1883 Was first admitted to the themselves to each other. Glasgow School of Art.

1894 exhibit at The South 1888 The family moved to 9 Kensington Institute with far Windsor Terrace, in the west from sympathetic articles in end of Glasgow. the local press. They are ridi- culed as “the spook school.”

1889 Was admitted to the Glasgow School of Art. 1895 start to work collab- oratively. In July The Yellow Book publishes six water- colours, two each by Margaret and Frances. In October they exhibit in London at the 5th Arts and Crafts Exhibition. Two supportive articles appear Margaret Macdonald, in Studio magazine, which Frances Macdonald, introduced their work Design for a Mirror Frame c.1896, Black and red crayon and watercolour Ill Omen or Girl in the East Wind with Ravens Passing the Moon, to the Continent. on paper, 85.3 x 71.6 cm 1893, Pencil and watercolor, 51.7 x 42.7 cm 1895 Exhibits posters at the Sa- 1899 Frances married Macnair lon de l’Art Nouveau, Paris and June 14, and left Glasgow decorative art and furniture at Frances Macdonald, for Liverpool. Queen’s Rooms Calendar Art for November, in Glasgow. School of Art, 1894, Frances Macdonald, 1899 Create their first white room at Dunglass Castle. Mar- Watercolor and ink on paper, The Sleeping Princess, 1896, Pastel on tracing paper in a hammered copper 1896 Exhibits posters at Royal garet makes a gesso panel for Aquarium, London; Walker 50.8 x 38.1 cm frame inscribed: Love, If thy tresses be so dark / How Dark those hidden eyes over the sitting room fireplace, Art Gallery, Liverpool; Société The May Queen. must be, 19.0 x 46.4 cm des Beaux Arts, Glasgow; Arts and Crafts 5th Exhibition, London. 1900 Son Sylvan born on June 18.

1896 open a studio at 128 Hope Margaret Macdonald, Street, Glasgow. Best known 1900 Marriage of Margaret Center detail from May Queen works from this period are Macdonald to Charles Rennie their hammered metal panels, (wall mural from Willow Tearoom) Mackintosh August 22 which are totally unique. in Glasgow. 1900, Painted gesso, with string & glass beads, detail 28 x 36cm, full 1897 Work featured in Studio 1900 They work on a pair of 36 x 76 cm magazine, Walker Art Gallery, gesso panels for The White Liverpool, and The Dining Room at Miss Kate Glasgow Institute. Cranston’s Ingram Street Tea Rooms. Margaret’s gesso panel is entitled The May Queen, 1898 Article in Dekorative and Mackintosh’s is entitled Kunst. Margaret’s first recorded Margaret Macdonald, The Wassail. collaboration with Mackintosh. Cover Design, German Art and This was for three metal panels by her for a cabinet and fire- Decoration Magazine, 1900 Before being installed in place designed by Mackintosh Ingram street these were first May 1902, pink, purple and for H. Bruckmann’s dining exhibited in the room that room in Munich. black ink on paper 25.0 x 18.0 cm they designed at the Vienna Secession Exhibition of 1900.

Frances Macdonald, Margaret Macdonald 1898 Work published in and James Herbert McNair, Dekorative Kunst magazine, 1900 Meets Gustav Klimt in and exhibited at the Royal Poster for The Glasgow Institute of Vienna and greatly impressed Society of Scottish Painters in him. So much so, that Klimt’s Fine Arts, 1896, Color lithograph Watercolor, Edinburgh. work was very influenced by printed in 4 sections, 236.0 x 102.0 cm hers for a considerable period.

1899 Exhibited at the 3rd Venice Biennale, International Margaret Macdonald, Society of Sculptors, Painters, Frances Macdonald and Margaret Macdonald, Gravers, London. Fabric Label for Sheenore Fabrics Clock, 1896, Hammered silver over wood, c.1915, colored ink on black paper, 26.5 x 26.5 cm 18.3 x 14.1cm Frances Macdonald, 1901 Margaret and Mackintosh 1902 Fritz Warndorfer, a submit their joint entry to The Honesty, 1897, Hammered copper wealthy Austrian business- House for an Art Lover and on wooden frame, 73.0 x 73.6 cm man and generous patron of was awarded a purchase prize, the arts, who had visited the and was one of three entries Mackintoshes in Glasgow published as a folio in 1902. in early 1900, and who had funded their trip to Vienna later that year, commissioned 1901-02 Attended enamel- Margaret Macdonald, two gesso panels from Margaret. ing classes at School of These were small panels to The Heart of the Rose, 1901, Painted gesso, with Architecture and Applied Art, be inserted into the casing of Liverpool. string & glass beads 89 x 89 cm a piano for his Music Room, which Warndorfer also commissioned from the 1902 Invited to take part in Mackintoshes this year. The International Exhibition The Opera of the Wind, was of Modern Decorative Art in completed in 1902. Turin. They create The Rose Frances Macdonald, Boudoir. For this Margaret Spring, 1901, Watercolor on linen fixed to a board, created two gesso panels The 1903 The other gesso panel of Heart of the Rose, and The 130.0 x 124.0 cm the pair, entitled The Opera of White Rose and the Red Rose. the Sea, was completed. Margaret created two further gesso panels, The Dreaming Rose and The Awakened Rose, 1903 The Music Room for which are set into the insides of Fritz Warndorfer is completed the dark oak doors of a writing to huge acclaim. desk designed by Mackintosh. She also made a metal panel Margaret Macdonald, The Spirit of Love, which is 1903 Created the much larger The Opera of the Wind, panel set into the back of a cabinet gesso panel O Ye, All That in the centre and two further from the piano of the Salon Walk in Willow Wood. This painted metal panels for the was the centerpiece of the Warndorfer, Vienna outside of the doors, showing a Room de Lux in Kate Cran- weeping rose. (piano now lost), 1902, ston’s Willow Tearooms in Sauchiehall Street. painted gesso, with string 1902 Exhibited, A Ladies Writing & glass beads Room, at the International 1904 Completed the gesso 19.0 x 19.4 cm Exhibition of Modern Decora- panel Summer, which was tive Art, Turin, and Architec- then hung on the east wall of ture and Design of the New Margaret Macdonald, the drawing room at Dunglass Style, Moscow. Margaret Macdonald, Castle. The design is a pro- O Ye That Walk in Willowood panel from the Room de Luxe, Willow gression of a design she did at The Opera of the Sea, panel from the piano of the Salon Tearoom, Glasgow, illustrates Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnet ‘O Ye that Glasgow School of Art, which Warndorfer, Vienna (piano now lost), 1903, Painted won the local design competi- Walk in Willowwood’, 1903, Painted gesso, with braid, shell & glass beads tion in 1894 for a “ design for gesso, with string & glass beads 19.0 x 19.4 cm 76.2 x 176.3 cm a window of mosaic glass”. 1905 School of Architecture 1908-09 Teaches at the and Applied Art closed, Glasgow School of Art. Herbert moves briefly to the City Art School before joining 1909 Exhibited at Allied Sandon Studios. Artists Association, London; Macnair family bankrupt.

1905 Paints The Sleeper. 1909 This was the year that Margaret Macdonald, Margaret Macdonald com- Margaret Macdonald, pleted what we believe to be Pair of Embroidered Panels at 1906 Moved from 120 Mains her masterpiece, The Seven The White Rose and The Red Rose, 1902, Gesso, painted, set with glass beads and Street to 6 Florentine Terrace, Glasgow School of Art, 1902, Princesses, from the play by near Glasgow University. shell, 99.0 x 101.5 cm Maurice Maeterlinck. It is Linen with silk braid, ribbon, her largest work, being made silk appliqué and bead decora- up of three panels of 1.52 x 2 1906 Paints Cinderella, and The red rose whispers of passion, metres (60”x 79”) each. tion, 177.2 x 41 cm exhibits her painting The And the white rose breathes of love; Silver Apples of the Moon in Frances Macdonald, Adding to it’s impact is the Glasgow. O the red rose is a falcon, fact that the colors are as Design for a pendant, 1901-02, Pencil and watercolor, bright and vibrant as when it And the white rose is a dove. 12.0 x 18.2 cm was first painted. The reason 1907 Exhibits her painting is that it was hidden away at Spring, in Glasgow. the start of the 1914-18 war, John Boyle O’Reilly. due to the anti British feel- ing throughout Austria and 1907 Leave Liverpool Germany. This would have for Glasgow. been perceived as the work of the enemy, and so could easily have been vandalized or 1907-08 Teaches at the simply destroyed. Glasgow School of Art In the event, the panels, which are extremely heavy, 1908 Completed the gesso were crated-up and taken panel The Sleeping Princess down to the basement of The for above the drawing room Osterreichisches Museum Fur fireplace at The Hill House in Angewanote Kunst, in Vienna. Helensburgh. They were placed against the wall of the basement, and a false wall was built in front of c.1908 Leave Liverpool for them. There they remained Glasgow. undiscovered until 1990 Margaret Macdonald, when new pipes were being installed. The Seven Princesses, center of 3 panels, 1906, Margaret Macdonald, and Frances Macdonald Gesso and pigment with beads and shell, 152.4 x 200.7 cm. Frieze Textile design- vanity handkerchief, c.1920, pencil and watercolour on designed for the Salon Warndorfer in Vienna. brown tracing paper, 16.0 x 25.2 cm

1909 Sketching holiday 1914 Take an extended holiday in Sussex. in Walberswick, on the Suffolk coast. He is exhausted, and has by now become totally 1909-11 Teaches at the Glasgow depressed by the lack of interest School of Art. and appreciation of his work in Glasgow.

1910 Sketching holiday in Kent. 1915 Move to London, and Frances Macdonald, Frances Macdonald, he never returns to Scotland. They joined private theatrical Man Makes the Beads of Life, but Woman Must Thread Tis a Long Path which Wanders to Desire, 1912, 1910 Exhibits her painting clubs and groups, and helped Dead Princess at the Interna- Them, 1911, Pencil and watercolor, 35.2 x 29.8 cm Pencil and watercolor on vellum, 35.0 x 30.0 cm design sets and costumes and tional Art Exhibition in the produce a large number of Secession Building, Vienna. textile designs while living in London.

1911 Work on the interiors at Miss Cranston’s Tea Rooms, 1916 The final documented Ingram Street, Glasgow. artistic collaboration of Margaret paints The Margaret with Mackintosh Mysterious Garden. is the series of seven or eight paintings with candelabra Frances Macdonald, that they exhibited at the 11th study for Autumn, 1897, Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1911 Exhibited at Sandon Frances Macdonald, London. This was collectively Pencil on brown Studios, Liverpool and Baillie titled The Voices of the Wood. The Sleeping Princess, 1901, Pencil, watercolor and gold paint on vellum, 14.7 x 47.8 cm Gallery, London. vellum, 34.0 x 21.7 cm

1921 Frances dies, and Margaret 1912 Offers a class in embroidery, paints La Morte Parfumee. which soon fails.

1922 Paints her last known By 1913 in Canada, returning watercolor, The Legend of the before the outbreak of WWI. Blackthorns.

1913 Mackintosh resigned 1923 Moved to the South from Honeyman, Keppie and of France. Mackintosh. Margaret submits photographs of the Seven Princesses, and In Willow Margaret Macdonald, 1923 Runs a car repair business Wood, as well as a design for with son Sylvan La Mort Parfumee, 1921, pencil, watercolour, gouache and gold paint The May Queen to the Ghent International Exhibition. on paper, 63 x 71.2 cm Frances Macdonald, 1927 Sylvan emigrates to Rhodesia, Herbert moves to The Choice, 1911, Pencil, watercolor, gouache Argyll, Scotland. and gold paint on vellum 34.2 x 30.3 cm 1926 Margaret goes to London for medical treatment, and while she is there Mackintosh writes a series of letters to her. Indeed, he writes to her almost every day. Frances Macdonald, Frances Macdonald, Design for an Appliqué Panel for 1927 Return to London so that The Moonlit Garden, 1898, Pencil, watercolor and gouache Mackintosh this time can have Fritz Warndorfer, Vienna, 1903, medical treatment. on brown tracing paper, 31.8 x 52.0 cm Pencil and watercolor, 30.5 x 30.5 cm

1928 Dies in London on the 10th of December.

Frances Macdonald, 1933 Dies in London on the Prudence and Desire, 1913, Pencil and watercolor, 7th of January. Frances Macdonald, 35.2 x 29.9 cm Spirit of the Rose, 1903-03, Pencil and watercolor

1952 Victoria and Albert on brown paper, 50.5 x 50.6 cm Museum, Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art exhibition includes their work.

1955 Dies April 22 in Argyll, Scotland.

Frances Macdonald, Woman Standing Behind The Sun, 1914, Pencil, watercolor, gouache and gold paint on vellum 35.2 x 30.3 cm

Margaret Macdonald, Design for Chiffon Voile Fabric, 2 schemes, 1917, Pencil, watercolour and gouache on brown tracing paper laid on cream paper, Frances Macdonald, 251.0 x 200.0 cm Girl and Butterflies, 1907, Watercolor on vellum , 28.6 x 28.6 cm