Artist - Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Created | Updated Jul 21, 2002
ARTIST 2: Charles Rennie Mackintosh
BORN: 7th June 1868 in Glasgow
DIED: 10th December 1928 in London of Cancer of the Tongue
MOVEMENTS AND IMPORTANT DATES:
| 1868 - 1889 | Born and studied in Glasgow at the Glasgow School of Art in the evening when he was 16 |
| 1889 - 1890 | Joined Honeyman and Keppie as an architectural assistant and won a travelling scholarship that led him to tour Italy, France and Belgium. |
| 1890 - 1900 | Designed his first major work - the Glasgow Herald Building, The Lighthouse and several other buildings at this time (inc Glasgow School of Art) |
| 1900 - 1914 | Based in Glasgow but working and travelling for commissions throughout central Scotland for Honeyman and Keepie where he had made partner in 1904. He also married Margaret Macdonald in 1900 (who he worked with closely) |
| 1914 - 1915 | Walberswick in Suffolk |
| 1915 - 1923 | London (Chelsea) where he undertook commissions designing textiles, furniture and interiors. |
| 1923 - 1927 | Port Vendres in the South of France where he concentrated on his landscapes and watercolours |
| 1927 - 1928 | Mackintosh returned to London in 1927 for treatment for tongue cancer (caused by his pipe smoking), treatment was unsuccessful and the following year he died, aged 60. |
SORT OF WORK AND MATERIAL:
o Watercolours
o Architecture
o Interior Design
o Furniture Design
o Textile Design
Mackintosh's watercolours won him first prize in an exhibition in 1891 and one of the assessors exclaimed, on being told he was an architectural student, "But hang it...this man ought to be an artist."
PARTICULAR VISUAL ELEMENTS:
Mackintosh in his watercolour flowers has looked at shape and linear features rather than tone, the objects are always placed centrally in the page, line drawn with simple colour washes over the top to suggest colour and tome, there is no great degree of shading in his work - his flowers were very formal - even his signature and subject name were enclosed in a box.
HOW HE WENT ABOUT HIS WORK:
Mackintosh's sketches were always in pencil (sometimes on pages of books) he would just sketch things as he saw them. He was highly analytic; he would after sketching place colour washes over his sketches so he wouldn't lose the detail of his original sketch (this is a feature of his work which I like a great deal). They demonstrate great sophistication, they're delicate in comparison to his bold furniture and stained glass but still show the same design inspired features - initially the drawings were an aid to his design work, but he later produced them as pictures in their own right.
"In 'seemliness' he wrote: "...you must offer real, living - beautifully coloured flowers - flowers that grow from but above the green leaf - flowers are not dead - are not dying - not artificia l- real flowers - you must offer the flower of the art that is in your - the symbols of all that is noble - and beautiful - and inspiring - flowers that will often change a colourless leaf - into an estimated thoughtful thing." |
WHICH STYLES ARE IMPORTANT TO ME:
I like the detail that's given just by using colour washes as apposed to oil or even by shading as I believe the linear effect shows how his previous architectural and design work has effected his outlook on art. He doesn't show great detail in the texture of the flower but suggests it by using the checked effect on his paintings such as Fritillaria or a hair effect such as that on Anemone and Pasque. I also like that he only suggests the colour, which gives a translucent air to his paintings, except for the occasional detail picked out in solid colour.
Rennie Mackintosh used the pochade method of working, basing his painting on simple field sketches of the flowers he saw. As Mackintosh couldn't escape his architectural or design background he changed his medium altogether and used simple pencil sketches, which tended to be very linear and structural. His design background influenced the way in which he saw his subject which meant that in paintings such as Fritillaria he has used definite lines to create a checked effect, after which colour washes were placed over the top giving texture to the form. Mackintosh's flower paintings show more delicacy and stylisation than his architectural drawings.
TRENDS, DEVELOPMENTS AND MOVEMENTS FOLLOWED:
o Art Nouveau
o Abstract
o Simplicity
o Fauvism
o Architecture
o Design
Mackintosh couldn't escape architecture or design so he decided to change medium altogether at the age of 50.
WHAT THEY'RE TRYING TO GET ACROSS? :
He was trying to get across the simplification of form to reach straight-line pattern and an asymmetrical determination of full and void forms. Design, pattern, line and colour of content and emotion - later works showed concern with relationships between the environment and manmade additions - all work based on his reaction as an artist to nature. In his architecture Mackintosh wanted every building to be a total work of art with each detail contributing to the whole image, you also often find flowers in his architectural and deign work.
WHAT HE WAS INTERESTED IN:
Mackintosh was interested in all things medieval (spiritual, immaterial and both buildings and watercolours show a capacity to use influences from others work.) In his paintings he concentrated on showing design and patters, line and colour rather than content and emotion. Also designed fabrics, furniture and book covers and undertook some interior design.
TECHNOLOGY:
Mackintosh didn't use any form of technology in his watercolours and sketches, he drew them on sight (Saw something and just drew them there and then), and he didn't rely on photography he just used first hand information. (Although in his design work I do believe he would have embraced the advances in CAD programs (computer aided design programs) to either design or develop).
ARTISTS THEY GOT IDEAS FROM:
o Margaret MacDonald (His wife)
o Joseph Hoffmann
o Le Corbusier
o Bernini
o Egon Schiele
o Anything Medieval and Mystical
ARTISTS WHO LIVED (SAME TIME OF LATER) AND WERE INSPIRED BY HIS WORK:
o Paul Nash
