Mackintosh

The Life and Work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

By Stuart Robertson - Director, CRM Society

The Formative Years

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in 1868 in the Townhead area of Glasgow.

He trained as an architect with John Hutchison and studied art and design at evening classes at Glasgow School of Art. After completing his apprenticeship he moved to Honeyman and Keppie in 1889.

At the Art School Mackintosh with his friend and colleague Herbert McNair developed an artistic relationship with sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald. They became known as the 'Glasgow Four' and collaborated on designs for furniture, metalwork, posters and illustrations that they exhibited in Glasgow, London, Vienna and Turin.

The 'Four' searched for new symbolic and elegant forms, leaning towards the strong lines of Art Nouveau. In Europe, the originality of Mackintosh's style was quickly appreciated and led to friendships with designers such as Josef Hoffmann and the commission to design the Warndorfer Music Salon.

In 1902, the Mackintosh Room at the Turin International Exhibition was enthusiastically received and he went on to exhibit in Moscow and Berlin helping to establish Mackintosh's reputation as a leader of the modern movement.

He disregarded the architecture of Greece and Rome as unsympathetic to the needs of Scotland and believed that a revival of the Scottish Baronial style, adapted to modern society, would meet contemporary requirements.

In 1895, having just completed his apprenticeship, he designed Martyrs' Public School and two years later worked on Queen's Cross Church (1897-1899).

The only church designed by Mackintosh to be realised, the building is now the international headquarters of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.

--> The Peak of his Powers