A showcase of the artistic output of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Herbert MacNair, Margaret and Frances Macdonald, known simply as 'The Four'.

A study of the life and work Charles Mackintosh, the architect of the Glasgow School of Art and one of the great architects of the early twentieth century.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was one of the most intriguing and influential artists of his time. Charles Rennie Mackintosh Masterpieces of Art reveals a selection of some of his most important and popular works, from stained glass pieces and furniture through to architecture, at the same time giving an overview of his life and career. The introduction reveals his journey from early Symbolist watercolours and Japanese-influenced details to his influence on the Vienna Secession and crowning works of architecture such as the Glasgow School of Art. The informed text and beautiful images of key artworks give depth and fuller understanding to create a beautifully rich and enjoyable tribute to the father of the 'Glasgow Style'.

"The breadth of Mackintosh's creative output was considerable, ranging from interior decoration schemes and designs for furniture, textiles and posters, through watercolors and pencil drawings, to vast public architecture projects ... [This book} looks at all aspects of his style, with a detailed commentary on 120 of his works"--Book jacket.

Much has been written about Charles Rennie Mackintosh, his life and work. This book attempts to decipher the meaning of the symbols and decoration in Mackintosh's art and that of many of his contemporaries, both in Glasgow and abroad.

Pamela Robertson, an acknowledged authority on Mackintosh, examines the artist's use of plant forms as decorative and formal sources for his designs in architecture, interiors, textiles, and graphics. She shows the ways in which nature provided lifelong inspiration for his work and analyzes his recurring use of the rose, a design motif which held a special significance as a symbol of art, beauty, and love for both Mackintosh and his artist wife, Margaret Macdonald. In addition, the author looks at Mackintosh's paintings and designs in relation to the work of contemporary symbolists, Japanese floral art, and the European tradition of scientific botanical illustration. Mackintosh's renowned skills as a draftsman are immediately apparent in his flower paintings. The sixty full-page colorplates presented here reveal early pencil sketchbook drawings done while Mackintosh was an apprentice architect and a student at the Glasgow School of Art, watercolors made on England's North Sea coast in 1914-15, and sophisticated still-life compositions of later years. Reproduced as well are striking floral-based textile designs of the 1920s, abstractions that placed him at the forefront of Britain's avant-garde movement. Photographs of his work in architecture and interiors are also included.