Editing Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh

{{Short description|British artist (1864–1933)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh
| image = Margaret MacDonald Macintosh.jpg
| alt = 
| caption = 
| birth_name = Margaret Macdonald
| birth_date = {{birth date|1864|11|5|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Tipton]], [[Staffordshire]], England, United Kingdom
| death_date = {{death date and age|1933|1|7|1864|11|5|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], London, United Kingdom
| nationality = British
| movement = [[Art Nouveau]], [[Glasgow Style]], [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]] 
| relatives = [[Frances MacDonald]] (sister)
| spouse = [[Charles Rennie Mackintosh]]
| awards = 
| patrons = 
| website = 
| field = [[Decorative Arts]], [[Design]], [[Art]]
| training = [[Glasgow School of Art]]
| works = 
}}

'''Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh''' (5 November 1864 – 7 January 1933) was a British artist who worked in [[Scotland]], and whose design work became one of the defining features of the [[Glasgow Style]] during the 1890s to 1900s.

==Biography==
Born Margaret Macdonald, at [[Tipton]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Great Women Artists |year=2019 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=9780714878775 |page=253}}</ref> [[Staffordshire]] between [[Birmingham]] and [[Wolverhampton]], her father was a colliery manager and engineer. Margaret and her younger sister Frances both attended the Orme Girls' School, [[Newcastle-under-Lyme]], Staffordshire; their names are recorded in the school register.<ref>Orme Girls' School, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Registers</ref> In the 1881 census Margaret, aged 16, was a visitor at someone else's house on census night and was listed as a scholar.<ref>1881 Census</ref> By 1890, the family had settled in [[Glasgow]] and Margaret and her sister, [[Frances Macdonald]], enrolled as day students at the [[Glasgow School of Art]] studying courses in design.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Mysterious Garden – Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh| url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/m/artist/margaret-macdonald-mackintosh/object/the-mysterious-garden-gma-5156| publisher=National Galleries of Scotland| access-date=25 October 2015}}</ref> There, she worked with a variety of media, including [[Metalworking|metalwork]], [[embroidery]], and [[textiles]]. Additionally, she joined other groups, such as the Scottish Society of Watercolour Painters in 1898.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Helland |first=Janice |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/33439974 |title=The studios of Frances and Margaret Macdonald |date=1996 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=0719047838 |location=Manchester, UK |oclc=33439974}}</ref>

She began collaborating with her sister Frances, and in 1896 the pair worked from their studio at 128 Hope Street, Glasgow, where they produced book illustrations, embroidery, ''[[gesso]]'' panels, leaded glass and ''[[Repoussé and chasing|repoussé]]'' metalwork.<ref>Keller, Victoria (1985), "Scottish Woman Artists" in Parker, Geoff (ed.), ''[[Cencrastus]]'' No. 23, Summer 1986, pp. 28 - 33, {{issn|0264-0856}}</ref> Their innovative work was inspired by Celtic imagery, literature, symbolism, and folklore.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web|last1=Panther|first1=Patricia|title=Margaret MacDonald: the talented other half of Charles Rennie Mackintosh|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/arts/margaret_macdonald_the_talented_other_half_of_charles_rennie_mackintosh.shtml|website=BBC|access-date=8 March 2015}}</ref> Margaret later collaborated with her husband, the architect and designer [[Charles Rennie Mackintosh]], whom she married on 22 August 1900.<ref name=MainsStreet>{{cite web|title=MX.04 Interiors for 120 Mains Street|url=http://www.mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/pdf/MX.04.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/pdf/MX.04.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|website=Mackintosh Architecture: Context, Making and Meaning|publisher=University of Glasgos|access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref> Her most well-known works are the gesso panels made for interiors designed with Charles, such as tearooms and private residences.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is frequently claimed to be Scotland's most famous architect. Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh was somewhat marginalised in comparison.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> Yet she was celebrated in her time by many of her peers, including her husband who once wrote in a letter to her, "Remember, you are half if not three-quarters in all my architectural work&nbsp;...";<ref>''The Chronicle: the letters of Charles Rennie Mackintosh to Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh'', Pamela Robertson, ed.</ref> and reportedly "Margaret has genius, I have only talent."<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|title=Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century| date=2001| publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|edition=Fourth| location=United States of America| page=81| last1=Kirkham|first1=Pat}}</ref>

Active and recognised during her career, between 1895 and 1924 she contributed to more than 40 European and American exhibitions.<ref name="bbc.co.uk" /> Poor health cut short Margaret's career and, as far as is known, she produced no work after 1921.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crmsociety.com/margaretmacdonald.aspx |title=Margaret Macdonald (1864–1933) |publisher=Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society |access-date=25 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104013707/http://www.crmsociety.com/margaretmacdonald.aspx |archive-date=4 January 2016 }}</ref> She died in 1933.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Fairchild Books Dictionary of Interior Design |author1=Mark Hinchman |year=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781501365188 |page=212}}</ref>

==The Glasgow Four==
[[File:Japanese Witch Hazel - Walberswick - Charles & Margaret Mackintosh - 1915.jpg|thumb| ''Japanese Witch Hazel, Walberswick, 1915'' is one of a number of botanical illustrations carrying Margaret's initials alongside those of her husband [[Charles Rennie Mackintosh]]]]

It is unclear exactly when the Macdonald sisters met Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his friend/colleague [[Herbert MacNair]], but they probably met around 1892 at the Glasgow School of Art (Mackintosh and MacNair were studying as night students), introduced by the Headmaster [[Francis Henry Newbery|Francis Newbery]] because he recognised that they were working in similar styles.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title='Glasgow Girls': Women in Art and Design 1880–1920|last=Howarth|first=Thomas|publisher=Canongate|year=1990|isbn=978-1-84195-151-5|editor-last=Burkhauser|editor-first=Jude|location=Edinburgh|page=57|chapter=Introduction}}</ref> By 1894, they were showing their work together in student exhibitions, some of which was made collaboratively. Reception of the work was mixed, and it was commented that the gaunt, linear forms of the Macdonald sisters' artwork – clearly showing the influence of [[Aubrey Beardsley]] – were 'ghoulish' and earned them the moniker 'The Spook School'.<ref>{{Cite book|title='Glasgow Girls': Women in Art and Design 1880–1920|last=Burkhauser|first=Jude|publisher=Canongate|year=1990|isbn=978-1-84195-151-5|location=Edinburgh|pages=85|chapter=The Glasgow Style}}</ref> They became known locally as "The Four".<ref name=":1" />

Most collaborative work in the 1890s was with her sister, particularly following the opening of their studio in 1896. Some works were made by both together, while others were series of works, such as a set of four paintings with [[Repoussé and chasing|repoussé]] frames on the seasons where each two works on the theme. They also created a set of illustrations for [[William Morris]]' ''Defence of Guenevere'' that was recently re-discovered in a special collections of the [[University at Buffalo]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ublibraries.smugmug.com/Archives/Defence-of-Guenevere/ |title=Defence of Guenevere - ublibraries}}</ref>

She created several important interior schemes with her husband, including work at the home of her brother Charles at [[Dunglass Castle|Dunglass.]] Many of these were executed at the early part of the 20th century; and include the ''Rose Boudoir'' at the International Exhibition at [[Turin]] in 1903, the designs for House for an Art Lover in 1900, and the [[Willow Tearooms]] in 1902. She exhibited with Mackintosh at the 1900 [[Vienna Secession]], where she was an influence on the [[Secessionist]]s [[Gustav Klimt]] and [[Josef Hoffmann]]. They continued to be popular in the Viennese art scene, both exhibiting at the Viennese International Art Exhibit in 1909.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Katalog der Internationalen Kunstschau Wien 1909.|date=1909|location=Vienna|pages=48|hdl = 2027/uc1.b3819965}}</ref>

In 1902, the couple received a major Viennese commission: [[Fritz Waerndorfer]], the initial financer of the [[Wiener Werkstätte]], was building a new villa outside Vienna showcasing the work of many local architects. [[Josef Hoffmann|Hoffmann]] and [[Koloman Moser]] were already designing two of its rooms; he invited the Mackintoshes to design the music room. That room was decorated with panels of Margaret's art: the ''Opera of the Winds'', the ''Opera of the Seas'', and the ''Seven Princesses'', a new wall-sized [[triptych]] considered by some to be her finest work.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/browse/display/?rs=207&xml=des|title=Mackintosh Architecture: The Catalogue - browse - display|website=mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk|access-date=5 June 2017}}</ref> This collaboration was described by contemporary critic Amelia Levetus as "perhaps their greatest work, for they were allowed perfectly free scope".<ref>{{Cite news|title=Glasgow Artists in Vienna: Kunstschau Exhibition|last=Levetus|first=Amelia S.|date=29 May 1909|work=Glasgow Herald|page=11}}</ref>

== Inspiration and style ==
Mackintosh did not keep sketchbooks, which reflects her reliance on imagination rather than on nature.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title='Glasgow Girls': Women in Art and Design 1880–1920|last=Robertson|first=Pamela|publisher=Canongate|year=1990|isbn=978-1-84195-151-5|location=Edinburgh|page=113|chapter=Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864–1933)|editor-last=Burkhauser|editor-first=Jude}}</ref> A few sources provided significant inspiration for her works, including the [[Bible]], the ''[[Odyssey]],'' poems by [[William Morris|Morris]] and [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti|Rossetti]], and the works of [[Maurice Maeterlinck]].<ref name=":0" /> Her works, along with those works of her often collaborating sister, defied her contemporaries' conceptions of art. [[Gleeson White]] wrote, "With a delightfully innocent air these two sisters disclaim any attempt to acknowledge that Egyptian decoration has interested them specially. 'We have no basis.' Nor do they advance any theory."<ref name=":0" />

The beginning of her artistic career reflects broad strokes of experimentation. Largely drawing from her imagination, she reinterpreted traditional themes, allegories, and symbols in inventive ways.<ref>{{Cite book|title='Glasgow Girls': Women in Art and Design 1880–1920|last=Neat|first=Timothy|publisher=Canongate|year=1990|isbn=978-1-84195-151-5|location=Edinburgh|page=117|editor-last=Burkhauser|editor-first=Jude|chapter=Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Margaret Macdonald and the Principle of Choice}}</ref> For instance, immediately following the 1896 opening of her Glasgow studio with her sister, she transformed broad ideas such as "Time" and "Summer" into highly stylized human forms.<ref>{{Cite book|title='Glasgow Girls': Women in Art and Design 1880–1920|last=Robertson|first=Pamela|publisher=Canongate|year=1990|isbn=978-1-84195-151-5|location=Edinburgh|page=110|editor-last=Burkhauser|editor-first=Jude|chapter=Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864–1933)}}</ref> Many of her works incorporate muted natural tones, elongated nude human forms, and a subtle interplay between geometric and natural motifs. Above all, her designs demonstrated a type of originality that distinguishes her from other artists of her time.<ref>{{Cite book|title='Glasgow Girls': Women in Art and Design 1880–1920|last=Robertson|first=Pamela|publisher=Canongate|year=1990|isbn=978-1-84195-151-5|location=Edinburgh|page=109|editor-last=Burkhauser|editor-first=Jude|chapter=Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864–1933)}}</ref>

==Popular work==
Mackintosh and her husband Charles were part of the  popular [[gesso|gesso revival]], their gesso panels were shown at the eighth exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1900. The Mackintosh-Macdonald interior designs exhibited in 1900 with their restricted [[color scheme|colour palettes]] and fitted [[Bench (furniture)|benches]] had an immediate impact on contemporary tastes, as the [[interior architecture]] was less lavish than earlier designs.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Charlotte Ashby |title=Art Nouveau: Art, Architecture and Design in Transformation |publisher= Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2021 |page=201 |isbn=9781350061163}}</ref>

Her gesso panels are now on display in the [[Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum|Kelvingrove Museum]] in Glasgow. The 2017–18 restoration of The Willow Tearooms building has seen a recreation of ''"Oh ye, all ye that walk in Willowwood"'' installed in the original location within the Room de Luxe.

Mackintosh's ''Seven Princesses'' is considered to be her masterpiece.<ref name=Christies/><ref name="Shaw">{{cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Michael |title=Fin-de-Siecle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity |date=2019 |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |page=117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnoxEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA117}}</ref> It consists of three wall-sized gesso panels showing a scene from [[Maurice Maeterlinck]]'s play of the same name. This work was extremely popular in Vienna and its surrounding art scene. When the Waerndorfer villa was sold in 1916, the panels disappeared from public view. In 1990, the panels were rediscovered in Vienna's [[Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna|Museum of Applied Arts]], in a hidden room in the basement. They were in separate crates and had apparently been placed there for safekeeping during [[WWI]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Seven Princesses at The MAK; The Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna |url=https://mackintoshprints.co.uk/the-seven-princesses/ |publisher=Mackintosh:Prints/Vaughan Art-Works |access-date=April 9, 2025 |quote=It is extremely fortunate that the Seven Princesses survives at all, as with the outbreak of WW1 it could easily have been vandalized as work by the enemy. However, a curator with great foresight, managed one night not long after the outbreak of war, to remove the panel ( in fact three separate panels ) and took it down to the basement of the museum.  There he had had prepared three crates for them, which when sealed-up he had placed against a wall. Then he had a brick wall built in front of them, which was then painted to match the rest of the walls. They remained hidden like this until in 1990 they were discovered when workmen were installing some pipes and new wiring.}}</ref> The gesso panels are now on permanent display in the Museum.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sammlung.mak.at/en/collect/the-seven-princesses-frieze-after-a-fairy-tale-by-maurice-maeterlinck-for-the-music-salon-in-the-warndorfer-house_193862 |title=The Seven Princesses. Frieze after a fairy tale by Maurice Maeterlinck for the music salon in the Warndorfer House |website=sammlungen.mak.at |language=en |access-date=5 June 2017}}</ref>

In 2008 Mackintosh's 1902 work ''The White Rose and the Red Rose'', a painted gesso over hessian with glass bead artwork, was auctioned for the {{Inflation|UK| 1,700,500|2008|2023|fmt=eq| cursign=£}}.<ref name=Christies>{{cite web |title=Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh The White Rose and the Red Rose, 1902 |url=http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5066453 |publisher=Christie's |access-date=25 October 2015}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Margaret MacDonald - Winter 1898.jpg|''Winter'', 1898.
File:"The May Queen" de Margaret Macdonald (Glasgow) (3803689322).jpg|alt=The May Queen, 1900.|''The May Queen'', 1900.<ref>[http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_255112/Margaret-MacDonald-Mackintosh/The-May-Queen-1900 Wikigallery - The May Queen 1900, by Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh.]</ref>
File:Margaret MacDonald - Embroidered Panels 1902.jpg|Embroidered panels, 1902.
File:Margaret MacDonald - White Rose And Red Rose.jpg|''White Rose And Red Rose'', 1902.
File:Willowood.jpg|''Oh ye, all ye that walk in Willowwood'', 1903.
File:Margaret MacDonald - Opera Of The Winds 1903.jpg|''Opera of the Winds'', 1903.
File:Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh Seven Princesses-MAK.jpg|''Seven Princesses'', 1907
File:Margaret MacDonald - Ophelia 1908.jpg|''Ophelia'', 1908.
File:The Mysterious Garden (1911) by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.jpg|''The Mysterious Garden'', 1911.
File:Margaret MacDonald - The Opera Of The Seas 1915.jpg|''The Opera of the Seas'', 1915.
File:Margaret MacDonald - La Mort Parfumee.jpg|''La mort parfumée'', 1921.
File:Cranston's exhibition cafe.jpg|Menu card design, 1911.
File:Room de Luxe.jpg|The Room de Luxe at the [[Willow Tearooms]].
</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist|33em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160104013707/http://www.crmsociety.com/margaretmacdonald.aspx Biography at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society]
* [https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/collections/collectionssummaries/art/themackintoshcollection/  The Hunterian Mackintosh Collection]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060821063105/http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/Mackintosh/groupfour.html Information on The Group of Four from the Hunterian Art Gallery]

{{Authority control}}
{{Charles Rennie Mackintosh}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackintosh, Margaret Macdonald}}
[[Category:1864 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:Scottish women painters]]
[[Category:People from Tipton]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art]]
[[Category:Glasgow School]]
[[Category:Art Nouveau painters]]
[[Category:Art Nouveau designers]]
[[Category:Scottish designers]]
[[Category:20th-century English women artists]]
[[Category:British embroiderers]]
[[Category:Members of The Immortals]]