All artists know that the pleasure derivable from their work is their life’s pleasure—the very spirit and soul of their existence. . . .
—Charles Rennie Mackintosh, “Seemliness” (lecture), 1902
The work created by the young Glasgow Style designers in the late 1890s expressed an experimental energy and joy as they explored ideas, materials, and techniques. These were exciting times; there were new people to meet and friendships to be made. Their work was shown in exhibitions and featured in publications, leading to success and even controversy on occasion. They were being noticed, most importantly by clients who gave them significant commissions.
As The Four became young married couples they transformed their homes—the MacNairs in Liverpool, and the Mackintoshes at 120 Mains Street, their apartment in the center of Glasgow. Their friends Alice and Talwin Morris had already settled into their home, Dunglass, in Bowling. Their early Glasgow Style designs were richly exuberant, and their distinctive furniture functioned almost as small pieces of architecture within a room. Their interior surfaces were embroidered, inlaid, and stenciled with a variety of materials, textures, and colors. A clever humor sometimes plays a part in the design.
Design for a music cabinet for Mrs. Ellen Pickering, 1898
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928)
Pencil and watercolor on paper
From the collections of The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, GLAHA 41785
This drawing in pencil heightened with watercolor is for the mahogany music cabinet displayed nearby that Mackintosh created for Ellen Pickering, whose father owned the Royal Polytechnic Department Store on Argyle Street, a stone’s throw from Miss Cranston’s tearooms. The cabinet was designed to store music books and sheet music. The drawing shows that its lower shelves would have been hidden by a linen curtain embroidered with a delicate rosebush and bluebells.
Design for a bedroom, Westdel, Glasgow: south wall elevation, ca. 1898
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928)
Pencil and watercolor on wove paper
From the collections of The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, GLAHA 41106
This bedroom—commissioned by publisher Robert Maclehose for Westdel, his home in the west end of Glasgow—was Mackintosh’s first white interior. He unified furniture, furnishings, and decoration through use of a single color. With white paint, Mackintosh obscured the grain of the wood to enhance the sculptural forms. He added texture and color to the room through the stenciled frieze above the picture rail, the embroidered textiles above and beside the bed, and a repoussé metal-and-glass panel above the fireplace. The latter features a peacock—a beautiful bird frequently used by Mackintosh in the years 1896 to 1898.
Decoration of a dining room for Mrs. Bruno Schroeder, 1901
Talwin Morris (1865–1911)
Watercolor and ink on paper
Glasgow Museums: Given by Mrs. Alice Talwin Morris, 1946, PR.1977.13.q
Illustrator and book designer Talwin Morris initially trained as an architect and occasionally took private commissions to design interiors and furniture. In this room he envisioned doors, built-in furniture, and wall paneling made of dark-stained wood. He created undulating bayed divisions (the profile of one of these brackets can be seen on the far right) that frame both the doors and the sideboard. Beaten brass panels and leaded glass add spots of color and interest. The stenciled frieze above the woodwork draws directly from motifs Morris used in his book cover designs for Blackie & Son.
Design for a bookcase, March 19, 1899
Talwin Morris (1865–1911)
Watercolor and ink on paper
Glasgow Museums: Given by Mrs. Alice Talwin Morris, 1946, PR.1977.13.n
As indicated in this design, Talwin Morris sometimes added decorative interest to his furniture by incorporating beaten metal panels and panes of colored and clear leaded glass. Built in four sections, the bookcase was ultimately finished in his preferred dark-stained wood. The brass panels on the lower doors are decorated with his favorite Glasgow rose and heart design.
Stenciled hanging: yellow flowers, ca. 1898
Designed and made by Talwin Morris (1865–1911)
Linen and paint
Glasgow Museums: Given by Mrs. Alice Talwin Morris, 1946, PR.1977.13.ap
Dunglass—the house of Talwin Morris and his wife, Alice—was set within the ruins of a fourteenth-century Scottish castle at Bowling, not far from Glasgow. What survives from the decoration provides insight into Morris’s idiosyncratic personality. He made a series of simple stenciled wall hangings featuring Egyptian flower forms in blue and yellow, integrating his signature of three dots decoratively into each design. Rectangular blocks of color give visual weight to the compositions.
Cupboard, ca. 1900
Designed by Talwin Morris (1865–1911)
Repoussé and chased metal panel made by Talwin Morris
Cabinetmaker unknown; possibly Talwin Morris
Stained wood, metal, and brass
Glasgow Museums: Given by Mrs. Alice Talwin Morris, 1946, E.1946.5.o
Designers working in the Glasgow Style favored putting a cornice—a bold, broad projecting top—on their cabinets. In this example Morris’s approach to construction was almost rudimentary, as his cabinet’s cornice is simply made from a thick flat square of wood. He softened the upper lines of the blocky design by employing corbels, subtly tapering and undulating fin-like elements to support the cornice.
Stenciled fireplace curtain, ca. 1895–98
Designed and made by Talwin Morris (1865–1911)
Linen and paint
Glasgow Museums: Given by Mrs. Alice Talwin Morris, 1946, PR.1977.13.al
The exuberant peacock is one of two stenciled fireplace curtains that survive from Morris’s home. The bird’s tail feathers encircle three hovering eyes. This curtain was part of a decorative scheme that included peacock feather wallpaper and a peacock painted across the front of the stone fireplace. Aubrey Beardsley had used peacock motifs in his 1893 illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. When Gleeson White, editor of The Studio, visited Dunglass sometime between late 1896 and early 1897, he noted how Morris’s interior design recalled Beardsley’s work.
Music cabinet for Mrs. Ellen Pickering, 1898
Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928)
Maker unknown; possibly Thomas Brown, Glasgow
Mahogany, ebony, leaded glass, and metal
Private collection c/o The Glasgow Guild
Mackintosh drew on his knowledge of classical architecture to develop this music cabinet. The sides of the cabinet subtly bow out and taper through the middle two quarters of its height, like the bulge of entasis used on ancient Greek columns. Used here, this classical device balances the competing visual dynamics of the wide cornice and the arced base.
Stenciled hanging: blue flower, ca. 1898
Designed and made by Talwin Morris (1865–1911)
Linen and paint
Glasgow Museums: Given by Mrs. Alice Talwin Morris, 1946, PR.1977.13.an
