The Nativity, by Frances Macdonald MacNair, is a watercolour, gold, and silver painting on brown tracing paper. It was bound in the Spring 1896 edition of The Magazine. This design, along with others from the period, contributed to the group’s reputation as the ‘Spook School.’
Frances Macdonald MacNair (1874–1921) was a significant figure within the Glasgow Style, although her work is less well-known than that of her sister, Margaret Macdonald. This is partly due to the loss of much of her output, which was destroyed by her husband, Herbert McNair, after her death, and partly because she left Glasgow in 1899. Despite this, Macdonald produced powerful and meaningful imagery, particularly in her later symbolist watercolours, which reflect on the choices facing women.
Frances Macdonald MacNair met Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Herbert McNair at the Glasgow School of Art. In the mid-1890s, she left the School to establish an independent studio in Glasgow with her sister, Margaret Macdonald. The two collaborated on metalwork, graphics, textile designs, and book illustrations, exhibiting their work in London, Liverpool, and Venice.
