SCOTTISH ART & DESIGN

Charles Rennie Mackintosh from Scotland to France

7 April 2025

This April we were proud to present a group of works by European polymath Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) in our Design Since 1860 auction, totalling £377,816 incl premium. The group was led by a beautifully formed suite of cutlery, commissioned in 1902 by Jessie and Francis (Fra) Newbery, then director of the Glasgow School of Art, which achieved £175,200 incl premium, and the wonderful Bouleternère at £150,200 incl premium, painted towards the end of Mackintosh's life in France.

A wonderful selection of items that truly reflect Mackintosh's eye for art and design including two delicate botanical watercolours from a trip to Holy Island in 1901; a rare suite of silver cutlery commissioned by Fra Newbery, the director of the famous Glasgow School of Art, for his home in 1902; and a remarkable watercolour entitled ‘Bouleternere’ from his period in France in the 1920s.

DESIGN Since 1860

View our April 2025 auction results.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh from Scotland to France

Join Head of Sale John Mackie as he discusses the collection of works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in our April 2025 Design Since 1860 auction, including the remarkable watercolour, ‘Bouleternere’.

A TRIP TO HOLY ISLAND IN 1901

1901 was a productive and exciting time for Mackintosh professionally, being the year that he was made a partner in the Glaswegian architectural practice where he worked. Seeking some brief respite from his busy roster of commissions, he and his wife Margaret took a holiday to Holy Island in the month of July, joined by the other members of ‘The Four’: Margaret’s sister Frances Macdonald and her husband Herbert McNair, as well as Margaret and Frances’s brother, Charles.

Given the trip was for such a short duration, sketches from this excursion are scarce. Nonetheless, the impact of this visit on both Mackintosh’s artistic and architectural practice was marked. For example, the surviving sketches show that he was deeply absorbed by Lindisfarne Castle. It has been noted that its sweeping, austere curves find echoes in his architectural language, for example in the Glasgow School of Art’s design which was completed in phases between 1896 and 1909.

Botanic studies were central to Mackintosh’s artistic practise. Even when he was busy with his architectural business, they remain a mainstay. Mackintosh’s ideology had sprung from the tenets of the Arts and Crafts Movement, in tandem with European Art Nouveau, and it is crucial to understand that his design language, whether that be architecturally or artistically, ultimately found its basis in his belief that nature was the source of beauty.

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)

'BROOKWEED', 1901

pencil and watercolour, signed and inscribed lower right BROOKWEED/ HOLY ISLAND/ JULY 1901/ MT FB C, framed

22cm x 17cm (frame size 44.5cm x 39.5cm)

SOLD FOR £18,900 incl premium

MOVING TO FRANCE IN 1923

The year 1923 saw the Mackintoshes move from London to France, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, at Amélie-les-Bains. Low sales of their artwork, and an increasing number of architectural projects failing to come to fruition saw times become tight for the couple.

France marked the first time in Mackintosh’s life where there were no distractions from or demands away from his painting practice. Perhaps inevitably for an architect, Mackintosh was drawn to the local townscapes of the area. He was not attracted to grandeur however, rather the organic occurrence of more vernacular groups of dwelling - like the town of Bouleternère, somewhat vertiginously arranged on a sloping hill, culminating in a pinnacle topped with small church of rudimentary form. As Margaret remarked in a letter to Jessie Newbery in 1925, “the buildings here (in this region of France) are a perpetual joy to us”.

The paintings produced in France – between 10-15 a year – are considered very important, being a period of “remarkable evolution in his artistic practice.”

Roger Billcliffe

These views were not directly topographical, instead often culminations of various viewpoints, arranged ‘just-so’ for the purposes of the paintings’ design. Like many of the French works, in 'Bouleternère', dating to 1925, Mackintosh employs pale tones demarked by sparer uses of colour in a high key that frequently depart from realism; here in the blue used to delineate the shadows cast by the overhang of the red tiled rooves. In addition, the French watercolours utilise a very foreshortened pictorial plane, a device that again enhances the sense of pattern and design that so distinctly defines his work across all the media and genres he turned his hand to. These artistic choices combine to produce works of great sophistication.

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)

'BOULETERNÈRE', CIRCA 1925

watercolour with traces of pencil, signed with initials in pencil lower right CRM, and inscribed to reverse of sheet, possibly by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh D. BOULETENÈRE (SIC)/ C.R. MACKINTOSH

44cm x 44cm (frame size 72cm x 72cm x 3.5cm)

Sold for £150,200 incl premium

EUROPEAN DESIGN FOR SCOTTISH FRIENDS

Mackintosh was commissioned in 1902 by Jessie and Francis (Fra) Newbery to create an elegant table set for 12 people. Fra Newbery, then director of the Glasgow School of Art, was a strong supporter of Mackintosh’s work and played a crucial role in promoting his career. His wife, Jessie Newbery, was an accomplished embroiderer and influential figure in the Arts & Crafts movement. Their long-standing friendship with Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald, fostered many creative collaborations.

Mackintosh’s cutlery design is revolutionary in its form. The spoons and forks feature exceptionally long, slender handles with a distinctive longitudinal oval opening. The forks are particularly striking, as the transition between the handle and the bowl was seamless, creating the illusion of a single, continuous band of metal. On the back, the bowls (except for the dessert fork) have a rectangular support with vertical embossing. The design anticipates Josef Hoffmann’s 1903 flaches Modell (flat model) cutlery, which was later showcased at the 1906 Wiener Werkstätte exhibition Der gedeckte Tisch (The Laid Table).

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)

SUITE OF CUTLERY, 1902

silver, comprising; A SINGLE SOUP SPOON, with deep almost circular bowl and with incised heel, pierced terminal, 26.5cm long; A SINGLE DESSERT SPOON, with deeper bowl and with incised heel, pierced terminal, 26.5cm long; A SINGLE DINNER FORK, with four prongs, pierced terminal, 26cm long; and A SINGLE DESSERT FORK, with four prongs, pierced terminal, 23cm long, each with maker’s mark DWH (David W. Hislop), hallmarked Glasgow 1902 (4)

Sold for £175,200 incl premium

FUTHER AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS BY CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH

SOLD FOR £4,032 incl premium

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH AND MARGARET MACDONALD MACKINTOSH

MEMORIAL EXHIBITION CATALOGUE, 1933

SOLD FOR £7,560 incl premium

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)

CABINET FOR SCOTLAND STREET SCHOOL, 1906

SOLD FOR £2,016 incl premium

AFTER CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH

FOUR TEA ROOM SPOONS, CIRCA 1920

SOLD FOR £3,024 incl premium

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)

HIGH STOOL, CIRCA 1894