Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh...She Had Genius

The White Rose & the Red Rose,1902       Margaret Macdonald       CRM & MMM Watercolor       The Opera of the Sea, 1902 

“Margaret has genius, I have only talent”…so stated Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh was the collaborator and wife of C. R. Mackintosh. After meeting CRM at the Glasgow School of Art, she became a true aesthetic partner as both collaborated on graphics, interiors, textiles and artworks, and even signed many watercolors jointly. The jointly developed flowing lines and floral motifs helped define the Glasgow Style. MMM’s best known works include gesso panels, wherein textures and lines were piped onto the canvas via pastry bags, with jeweled insets. The largest, The Wassail (1900) was completed for the Willow Tea Room. She and CRM exhibited works at the 1900 Vienna Secession, and influenced the furniture work of Josep Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt’s 1902 Beethoven Frieze. In 2008 her 1902 work The White Rose and the Red Rose was auctioned for 1.7 million UK pounds, then a record for a Scottish artwork.

The Wassail, 1900; completed w/C.R. Mackintosh