(1868-1928)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a designer and architect during the Art Nouveau period. He was greatly influenced by nature in his work and his signiture flower appeared in many of his designs which are instantly recognisible. He mostly did architecural work and many of his most famous buildings can be found in Glasgow.
He was part of a group known as The Glasgow Four who consisted of J Herbert MacNair and Francis and Margaret MacDonald(whom he later married)
His designs were simplist, intricit and incredibly distictive. His style mixed together elements of the Scottish vernacular and the English Arts and crafts tradition with the organic forms of Art Nouveau and created a modern look. They showed that good design didn't need to refer to the past, that you didn't require gothic or romanisque design for a building to stand out. His work though technically Art Nouveau shared similarities of the still to come Art Deco movement, with his straight angular designs such as his windows. This was especially apparent in his later designs as he slowly started to lose his organic decoration in favour of geometric designs. His interior designs that usually came with his architecture were often created in collaboration with his wife Margaret
His work could be divided into three main categories: Public buildings, private homes and tea rooms, his work includes the interior of the Argyll street tea rooms, Queen's cross church, the Willow tea rooms and Hill house.
