Glasgow School The Glasgow School By George Johnson he term Glasgow School crops up The Scottish style icon Charles Rennie Tfrequently in the world of antiques and Mackintosh is the best known of the influential interior design. Despite this it is a fact that most group. Mackintosh was born in a Glasgow people would hardly even give it a second tenement in 1868. He was one of eleven siblings, thought in respect of what it means or its so he encountered overcrowding and hardship from cultural significance. I think it is always worth an early age. Being born with a club foot did not investigating the terms that we come across in help matters. A sickly child through his early years antiques and collecting and also to place them in he developed a natural talent and fondness for art some kind of historical context. The learning and drawing. He disagreed with his father who was experience helps in our pursuit of knowledge a superintendent in the Glasgow police force about and this in turn might help us identify that pot what career he should follow. At the age of sixteen of gold in the rainbow of collecting. Mackintosh accepted an apprenticeship with the architect firm of Honeyman and Keppie. Part of the At the end of the nineteenth century Glasgow apprenticeship process called for him to attend had become quite prosperous. With this came a evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. Here boost to the arts and crafts market in the area. This he met his future wife and fellow member of The Margaret MacDonald and was further fuelled by the founding of the Glasgow Four Margaret MacDonald. She was born near Frances MacDonald copper School of Art in 1845, this being one of the govern- Wolverhampton in 1865. Her father was employed candlestick, c1897, 45.8cm ments first schools of design which showed how as a colliery manager but by 1890 the family had high, 32cm dia, sold for a hammer price of £52,000, attitudes to style and design had changed over the moved to Glasgow where Margaret and her £65,000 including premium. preceding years. It was situated on Ingram Street in younger sister Frances both enrolled to study November 2010 at Lyon & Glasgow but at the turn of the century it moved to painting at the school. Margaret met and developed Turnbull, Edinburgh. the now famous Renfrew Street building designed her relationship with her future husband by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Mackintosh, who she finally married in 1902. From the start the Glasgow School of Art became Margaret’s sister Frances also met her future a nurturing ground for Scottish artists and husband at the school, James Herbert MacNair who designers. By around 1890 a group of four people was the final member of the group. Born in involved with the School of Art started to make Glasgow in 1868 his family had strong military huge waves within the arts and crafts world, being connections but James decided to embark on a known collectively as the Spook School. This term career as an architect, taking an apprenticeship at This 22 x 34cm, oil on board stemmed from the use of elongated, sinuous and the Glasgow firm of Honeyman and Keppie. He painting of Ben Moore and feminine graphic forms, a style based on fabled and Mackintosh struck up a friendship. As part of Holy Loch, is signed in the and mythic themes. Alternatively they were known their training they attended evening classes at the lower left J Greenless 1884 and is inscribed on the as The Four, and acknowledged as being respon- Glasgow School where they met the MacDonald reverse with the title. James sible for creating the principal centre for original sisters, and so the early loose collaboration of the M Robert Greenless (1820- design and style within Glasgow. Spook School was formed. 1894) was a pupil teacher at Glasgow flourished during the industrial The group drew their inspiration from the Far Glasgow School of Art, which revolution with the River Clyde becoming the East influence and the Celtic Revival, and so the required him to split his time mecca for heavy industry and ship building, gener- arts and crafts movement created very strong between study and the teaching of other pupils. He ating a great flow of wealth into the city. In turn themes which were the driving force behind the later went on to become the wealth increased demand for consumer goods, whole art nouveau style. Together with other Headmaster of the school in particularly art and design items, so not only was famous names like Louis Comfort Tiffany, Gustav 1863. He spent his early the Glasgow School turning out artists and Klimt and René Lalique, the Glasgow School years working with stained designers, but they themselves had a ready market embodied the whole style of art nouveau which glass but spent most of his later years working as a for their innovative and original concepts. An translated to mean ‘New Art’ and thus enabled the landscape painter working in influence prominent at this time in Glasgow was artists behind the movement the freedom to try mainly oil and watercolours. the Japanese style introduced by visiting Japanese new styles and techniques. Art nouveau became Most of his paintings depict ship designers and financiers in Scotland, commis- ‘the must have look’, becoming popular throughout the West Highlands of sioning ships to be built on the Clyde. This also the art world, and influencing generations of Scotland. He was also a founding member of the brought about an influx of Japanese supporting designers and artists. It was one of the driving Royal Society of Watercolour staff who introduced the tastes and designs of the forces that defined the style of the Glasgow Four. Painters in Scotland. Far East to the developing Scottish School. Not only did Mackintosh design buildings, but This oil painting was sold by One ship built on the Clyde for the Japanese designed the furniture, glazed windows and fittings Cheffins of Cambridge in Navy was the warship Asahi, built by John Brown which went with them. Feburary 2005 and achieved & Co. The warship was launched in April 1900, One of the finest examples of this experience is a final hammer price of £340 which I think was a very having a displacement of 15,200 tons. It was in use The Willow Tearooms in Glasgow. Kate Cranston good buy considering the by the Japanese Navy until May 1942 when it was was an owner of a chain of tea shops in Glasgow artist and the strong connec- torpedoed by USS Salmon off Christmas Island. and one of Mackintosh’s greatest supporters and tions to the Glasgow School. patrons. He had designed the interior of two of her ANTIQUES INFO - May/June 11 Glasgow School tea rooms and then in 1903 he was asked to design the exterior and interior of The Willow Tearooms on Sauchiehall Street. The name of the street means in old Scots ‘the alley of willows’. Mackintosh was great at picking up little inspirations like this and used the willow theme extensively throughout the design. He work closely with Margaret designing everything to do with the tearooms. They took great care of the smallest detail, even designing the uniforms for the waitresses. The above architectural ink It was a large project as it was spread over five floors, opening in This Glasgow School Style drawing by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, c1905, of November 1903. The tea rooms became the place to take tea in the city and Arts & Crafts Casket was sold by Charterhouse Auchenebert House, Killearn the room that everybody wanted to take it in was the Room de Luxe as it Auctioneers in November was sold by Phillips Auction summed up the art nouveau look. It had large windows facing onto the street. 2007. It had wonderfully House, Scotland in December They decorated the room in white which showed off the fittings, from silver carved scrolling foliage and 2000 for an outstanding painted high-backed art nouveau chairs and sofas upholstered in rich purple applied metal mounts and hammer price of £18,200, strap work and measured and it proves how much items fabric to a fantastic gesso panel by Margaret Macdonald. The room oozed by Mackintosh can achieve. style and opulence. 43cm. It fetched a hammer price of £320 which I think One small detail that you may notice about Mackintosh’s chairs and was a very good purchase for furniture is that most of his items tend to be heavily painted. He did not like such a fine item. the look of wood grain and tried his hardest to cover it up using painted finishes etc. The Glasgow Four produced work in many different fields of the arts. Margaret Macdonald, who married Mackintosh in 1902 was a leading light in the fields of painting and glass. Her works in the medium of glass is world renowned and much sought after. Frances MacDonald and Herbert MacNair worked together in many different mediums, including watercolours, book illustrations, metal work and other areas. Frances also worked in the fields of embroidery and gesso panels. When Frances passed away in 1921 MacNair was so overcome by grief that he destroyed all of their works of art that he The above brass jardinière Peter Howson O.B.E (1958-) had in his possession. However the one who has left the most recognisable was sold by Great Western is an artist who studied at the legacy is Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He shaped the style and taste of art Auctions of Glasgow in Glasgow School of Art before nouveau.