Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the art of The Four

Abstract

The Glasgow Style is the name given to the work of a group of young designers and architects working in Glasgow from 1890-1914. At its centre were four young friends who had trained at Glasgow School of Art; two architects and two artists--Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Herbert MacNair, Margaret Macdonald and Frances Macdonald--who were simply known by their friends and contemporaries as 'The Four'. Their work was a personal vision in the new international style of the 1890s, Art Nouveau, and is perhaps best known for Mackintosh's architecture and furniture. But at the root of this new style was a graphic language which all four shared. 'The Art of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Four' showcases the often overlooked paintings of these four highly original artists--their early watercolours, the work of the Spook School, the development of their individual styles, the new directions taken by each artist, and their later works, including Mackintosh's accomplished French landscapes.