It was raining when we got to Scotland (what else is new?), so we decided to go hunting for examples of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the renowned Scottish architect, water colorist, and designer.  Everywhere you could see those strange letters with the little dots under the O's, a unique way of printing that he often used, now known as the Mackintosh Font.  In a brochure on Glasgow we saw a picture of a guest room he designed and the caption read, "Toshie's Bedroom" and that was an indication of the affection which the Glaswegians now have for one of their own.  It was not always so.  During his lifetime there were few who appreciated his rare genius for design, or that of his wife, Margaret MacDonald, and their partners in art, Margaret's sister Frances, and her husband, Herbert MacNair. They were called "The Four," and their fame was greatest abroad.  However, when Toshie won the competition for the design of the Glasgow School of Art in 1896 his reputation as an architect was assured.   Soon all Glasgow knew his work, and that of Margaret as well, at Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms, delightful emporia where sociability and art mingled.   Mackintosh designed everything --tables and tableware, wall paintings and windows, doorways and clocks, and the only present-day example of his tea rooms survives as The Willow Tea Room on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow.

The Queen's Cross Church, which he designed as St. Matthew's Church, is now the international headquarters for the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.
 

Best of all, anyone, anywhere, can tour Toshie's own home and see the white carpet in the white room where Margaret, white gloved, painted her gesso panels.  It has been reconstructed at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery of the University of Glasgow, with a Virtual Tour provided for anyone with access to the Internet and the necessary browsers and plug-ins.  You can go there now by clicking on the icon, or if you do not have the plug-ins, click on the photo of the white room and follow the links from there.  In the background of this web page you see a design for a House for an Art Lover, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1901.  The house was finally built in Glasgow in 1990, and it can be visited online by clicking here or on the highlighted words above.
 
 

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BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: Discovering Mackintosh In Scotland
Copyright 1997 J.J. & C. Schnebel
All rights reserved

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