Margaret macdonald mackintosh biography of christopher powell

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh — , painter and designer, was one of the most successful of the artist-designers later called the 'Glasgow Girls'. She produced watercolours, graphics, and panels in gesso plaster , beaten metal and textile, much of this in collaboration with her sister, Frances Macdonald — , James Herbert McNair — and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Little is known of Macdonald's early life. She was born in Tipton, near Wolverhampton, where her father was manager of the local Moat Colliery.

Kind Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh is also

The family moved frequently with their father's changing career. Between and the late s, the family is known to have been in Congreaves, Tipton, Kidsgrove and Chesterton. These Scottish connections were maintained. From to , her brother Charles studied law at the University of Glasgow, before joining the family practice, and by the rest of the family had followed him to Glasgow.

They are mentioned for the first time as day students in the Annual Report for the session —1. Given the maturity in style and execution of their work in the early s, it is probable that they had received some previous training in England, though there is only partial documentation for Margaret Macdonald having received art tuition. During the s, Macdonald produced wide-ranging and innovative work in watercolours, graphics, and metalwork, much of this carried out in collaboration with Frances Macdonald and Herbert McNair.

The designs are characterised by distinctive stylisations of human and plant forms, creating linear, often symmetrical patterns from interlocking limbs, swirling hair and tendrils. Such stylisations show an awareness of contemporaries Jan Toorop, Aubrey Beardsley, and Carlos Schwabe, whose work had been published in the Studio. Its most public face was the poster designs from the mid s, notably for the Glasgow-based Drooko umbrella manufacturer and the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.

Often it was ridiculed, but more reflective critics such as Gleeson White, editor of the Studio , found the Glasgow designers' work worth supporting: 'Eccentricity is often enough the first title given to efforts, which, later on, are accepted as proof of serious advance.