Margaret Macdonald: Out of the Shadows

 

Opera of the Seas (1915)

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh is always written about in the context of others. It’s difficult to be taken seriously as an individual when you’ve got a more-famous husband, an artist sister & you’re part of a group whose members feed off each other & inspire each other artistically. But Margaret certainly was individual in her ideas, style, vision & sometimes even in the sheer scale of her works. These elements combine to generate some of the most unusual artwork ever made.

That said Margaret was also a collaborator. She collaborated with (& outlived) both her sister Frances & her husband, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, to the extent that he would even sign his floral watercolours with her initials as well as his own. He purportedly said of her, “Margaret has genius, I have only talent.”

 

Ophelia (1908)

Born in England but trained & working in Scotland, Margaret was heavily inspired by nature & Celtic folklore, books & stories & an interest in the transcendent. Her interpretations of literature & the development of her own symbols & descriptive set of codes are imaginative rather than observational & she did rely on sketching. She used her own invention. Her works are conceptual, at times even dreamy or ethereal in atmosphere, based on themes & ideas rather than a desire to produce figurative or realistic images. They are mannered, stylised, verging on arts & crafts in terms of design & practical methods. They are instantly recognisable.

 

The White Rose & the Red Rose (1902)

She belonged to The (self-proclaimed) Four: herself, CRM, Frances & Herbert McNair, Frances’s husband. As musicians in a band develop a combined style, so The Four validated each other’s individual contributions to evolve a collective visual short hand & identity. The cross-pollination of styles & thinking amongst them is evident, but when you look at enough of their works side by side, you begin to discern the hand of the individual artists. As with CRM’s her works were much beloved of the Vienna Secessionists & during her lifetime she was appreciated & respected in her field. A direct link can be traced to Gustav Klimt’s more linear works, e.g. Sketch of an Angel from her Opera of the Winds.

Margaret (1903)

 Gustav (1903)

But of course, history has remembered her husband first, despite her influential career. In a sense, she invited this. In any collaborative endeavour, there may be inequity, particularly if you’re married to one of the greatest architects that Europe ever produced. Then again, Margaret was vital to his progress personally & as an artist.

 

Titania (1909)

Margaret’s influences were varied, often mystical yet her work became something else entirely. Line & form were key, as was a designer’s eye for limiting the palette & an emerging symmetry, unity & structure. One of the fundamental features of her work that sets her apart from others is the media she routinely used. For instance, what is often referred to as a masterpiece, The May Queen has hessian as a base incorporating scrim & twine, is painted with gesso & marked with thread, glass beads, mother of pearl & tin leaf. It’s difficult to imagine where you’d start with such a design, considering the perfection of line & how it was achieved, not to mention the complex nature of the composition. The work is complicated further by its size: panels totalling 1.52m x 5.94m (4’ 11.84” x 19’ 5.85”). To picture her working on this is touching – there’s a physical labour involved, suggesting an all-out approach to tackling the piece.

This clip shows a reconstruction of The Seven Princesses in a modern context for the restoration of Glasgow’s Willow Tearooms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZYWyw_dx9k

 

Although some of the paintings & panels have an iconographic aspect, some of Margaret’s work has at various points been criticised for being merely frivolous, romantic or decorative & as not conforming to contemporary feminist standards. Whilst their work was appreciated in certain quarters & they were able to make a living from it, nevertheless some disliked their stretched-out, distorted figures & The Four earned the name The Spook School. Bizarre for those whose inspirations were generally based on the beauty of life & cycles of nature as opposed to something macabre or grotesque. It remains a fact however that Margaret’s accomplishments far outweigh the credit she is given, not just as a working artist. She exhibited across Europe & the US, she & Frances ran their own studio & Margaret created panels for a range of interiors with CRM.

 

Panel on Desk

O ye, all ye that walk in Willowwood (1903)

Margaret’s reputation particularly for watercolour paintings saw her become independent & much of what thwarted a more promising career was beyond her control. After her mother’s (1912) death, she & CRM suffered depression & financial worries. Then came WWI, difficulties with CRM’s drinking, eyesight & mental health, having to move away when locals suspected the Mackintoshes of a very different sort of collaboration due to their visits to Austria. There was the knowledge that Frances’s mental health & marriage were breaking down & the apparent suicide of Frances. If she knew of it, imagine her consternation at the complete destruction of Frances’s work by Herbert after her death. Later there was Margaret’s own ill health to contend with but the period of hardship she suffered whilst still able to work changed her art.

Embroidered Panels (1902)

 The Four Queens (1909)

With love & collaboration comes grief & responsibility. Viewed more positively, the deaths of her mother & sister prompted & enabled her to develop a new visual vocabulary. In later works such as La Mort Parfumée (1921) & The Legend of the Blackthorns (1922), we see a very different palette & sense of a more subdued, darker air albeit maintaining the brilliance of form & composition she was renowned for.

 

A pioneering artist, working within The Four, Margaret contributed to a body of work & ideas that extended far beyond the confines of Scotland. Her immediately recognisable figures in voluminous hair & frocks are only part of it. Not content to follow other philosophies & movements (despite their clear artistic influences & inspirations) she led the way to a new language in art & to a new appreciation of a unique & largely uncompromising style of working.