This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 23rd May 2014. The canvas relates to smaller watercolours in the Hunterian collection, formerly thought to be textile designs, and to their painted canvas, 'The Little Hills' by Margaret Macdonald. It is likely that they were intended for 'The Dug-Out', though it is not known whether they were ever installed there. Jessie Newbery recalled in 1933, that 'He (Mackintosh) and his wife spent the winter of 1914 painting two large decorations for Miss Cranston'. This would have been in Suffolk, after they had left Glasgow. Although The Dug-Out was not created till 1917-18 it is not unlikely that Miss Cranston was considering the project some years earlier. The canvas was found in the GSA in a single roll in 1981 and was cleaned and mounted on two stretchers.
This item was lost in the fire in The Mackintosh Building at The Glasgow School of Art on 23rd May 2014. The canvas relates to smaller watercolours in the Hunterian collection, formerly thought to be textile designs, and to their painted canvas, 'The Little Hills' by Margaret Macdonald. It is likely that they were intended for 'The Dug-Out', though it is not known whether they were ever installed there. Jessie Newbery recalled in 1933, that 'He (Mackintosh) and his wife spent the winter of 1914 painting two large decorations for Miss Cranston'. This would have been in Suffolk, after they had left Glasgow. Although The Dug-Out was not created till 1917-18 it is not unlikely that Miss Cranston was considering the project some years earlier. The canvas was found in the GSA in a single roll in 1981 and was cleaned and mounted on two stretchers.
A study and copy of images from the book 'Grammar of Ornament', by Owen Jones, published by Bernard Quaritch. Two colour drawings and some hand written text discussing Egyptian ornament and decoration.
In 1896 McNair held his first one-man show, an exhibition of pastels at the Gutekunst Gallery, London. Twenty-one works, including this, were displayed in distinctive dark-stained wood frames. McNair had clearly drawn inspiration from Whistler’s exhibition installations, even down to the typesetting of the catalogue. The entry for this work explained, ‘The Fairy is guarding the Leaf of Love from the Witch of Evil who has robbed the Tree of Life of all its other leaves.’
The wavy pattern in the background is very similar to some of the most abstract designs for textiles for which Mackintosh was producing at this time.' (Roger Billcliffe).
'As in 'The Village' there are no figures in this view of the Dorset countryside. This absolute lack of human activity gives Mackintosh's pictures an air of eerie, even surreal, desertion. They are formal landscapes... the most dominant feature in this work is the tall telegraph pole, a formal and unnatural element in this gentle Dorset landscape.' (Roger Billcliffe).
Mackintosh's style here is the closest he came to that of Margaret and Frances Macdonald, but his figures are always more substantial and the subject matter less whimsical than theirs.
In July Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald spent a holiday in Dorset re-visiting many of the place he had visited in 1895. 'In 'The Village' and 'The Downs' Mackintosh makes his first conscious moves towards his mature style of the Port Vendres period. He is obviously concerned with the pattern of the landscape, picking out features like the stepped hillside, the stone walls, paths and roofs of village houses. These ordinary motifs are given an eerie emphasis by being painted in an equally detailed manner whether they are in the foreground of the the distance... it was probably at this time... that he decided to concentrate more and more on painting. By 1923 he had decided to forsake architecture and design and devote the rest of his life to producing watercolours.' (Roger Billcliffe).
Study of the death of Annourie the Sourceress. Verso: "The Death of Annourie the Sourceress (Malory's Morte D'Arthur Book IX CHap.16) Awarded Silver Medal, Paris Salon 1913/W. Russell Flint/RWS/RSW".
Design for embroidered pulpit-fall, 'Be Ye Doers of the word not hearers only.' The words of the design are taken from James, chapter 1, verse 22 in the New Testament. Inscribed upper right: Design for a pulpit fall/J.R. Newbery Centre: "Be Ye Doers of the world not hearers only".
Study of armed guards. Lower right: R. An Bell/1927/Girgenta Queen Hippolyta's Guard. The Salute Verso: Queen Hippolyta's Guard, The Salute/Robert Anning Bell R.A./28 Holland Park Road W.14 (in chalk) A. Bell.
Unfinished abstract landscape. Lower left: The early stages of a water colour drawing (subsequently damaged) made by Mr. J. Q. Pringle when at Whalsay.
Cover. NMC/169B-G are watercolours on individual pages from another sketchbook. NMC/169H-K are sketches from a sketchbook, without a cover. NMC/169L-V are sketches on individual pages from the same sketchbook as the cover, NMC/169A.
Castle in landscape with figures. From "A Treatise on Landscape Painting and Effect in Watercolours: from the first rudiments to the finished picture: with examples in Outline, Effect, and Colouring", first published in London by S & J Fuller in 1814, republished in 1840.
