Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Willow Herb, Buxstead, 1919

While a young architectural apprentice, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art, where he met Herbert MacNair, Frances Macdonald, and her sister Margaret Macdonald (who would later become Mackintosh's wife). Together they formed "The Four," producing watercolours, poster designs, and small decorative objects that were published in The Studio. In 1889 Mackintosh was hired as a draftsman at the architectural firm of Honeyman and Keppie, where he would remain until 1914. It was there that he developed a unique design idiom based on the forms and materials of traditional Scottish architecture.

Mackintosh undertook all aspects of a design commission, providing every element, from an architectural setting to small decorative objects and textiles. His best-known commissions include a building for the Glasgow School of Art (built in two phases, 1897-99 and 1907-09) and Hill House (1902-04), the Walter Blackie residence in the Glasgow suburb of Helensburgh.

Towards the end of his life, Mackintosh and his wife Margaret McDonald settled in the small town of Port Vendres in the south of France. He had completely abandoned his architectural career and increasingly turned to watercolour, producing more than 40 works, which have a strong sense of design that reflects his architectural interests.

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HC-739: card size 7" x 5" (178mm x 127mm)