TASH Talk Report by Robert Gurney - September 17th 2026: Flowers of Scotland - the decorative art of Charles Rennie Mackintosh & Margaret Macdonald with Justin Reay

Our lecturer this month was Justin Reay, who is a member of the Rennie Mackintosh Society as well as a tutor at Merton College Oxford.  Justin's talk was very well illustrated, and we could all have sat and admired Rennie Mackintosh's work all day.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is one of the great designers and artists of the early twentieth century.  He met his wife, Margaret MacDonald, at Glasgow School of Art, where he studied architecture and she studied design.  They formed an immediate and very creative partnership, and also sparked off ideas in their wider group of fellow students in Glasgow, which at the end of the nineteenth century was one of the wealthiest places in Britain.  

Rennie Mackintosh joined an architectural practice, and designed landmark buildings, including that of the Glasgow School of Art.  He and Margaret were involved in all aspects of design, not just the buildings but the furnishings, panelling and textiles.  They designed public buildings and tea rooms, as well as private houses.  They sparked ideas off artists and designers throughout Europe, including with Klimt and others in Vienna, and could be said to be founders of the Art Nouveau movement after Aubrey Beardsley.

Rennie Mackintosh became the senior partner in his architectural practice, but became disillusioned later in life, resigned from the practice, and they moved to Suffolk and then to south-western France, with Rennie Mackintosh mainly working as a watercolourist. He returned to London as he was ill with throat cancer, and died at the age of sixty in relative penury and obscurity.  His influence has only grown since, with many copies of his designs have been made since, in Scotland and elsewhere.

Did you know that when Charles Rennie Mackintosh died, his entire estate was valued at just £88?

Mackintosh is widely considered to have been a significant influence on Modernist architecture. Similarly, the interior furnishings and decoration he designed in collaboration with his wife Margaret, an important artist in her own right, are regarded as major examples of Art Nouveau. They created a distinctive approach to architecture, art and interior design, incorporating the Aesthetic, Symbolism, Celtic and Nordic influences, the Arts and Crafts Movement and European Art Nouveau, which with a small group of fellow artists has been given its own label, the Glasgow Style.

Mackintosh’s paintings, particularly the delightful watercolours created late in life, are less well-known but add to the story of this gifted couple. In this talk – created as we approach the centenary of Mackintosh’s death in 1928 and the 160th anniversary of his birth – Justin discusses the exteriors and interiors of Mackintosh’s most iconic building commissions, and then introduces the exquisite designs, drawings and landscape paintings of this highly talented artistic couple.

About our Speaker

After officer service in the Royal Navy Justin had a long career in business, latterly as Director of Studies for executive development colleges in Oxford and Washington DC. Retiring from business in 2000, Justin studied the History of Art and Architecture at Oxford.

While researching for a doctorate in naval history, Justin was invited to become a senior academic manager at the Bodleian Library, advising graduate researchers and editing manuscripts. A qualified teacher, he is a tutor in the History of Art and Classical Studies for independent colleges in Oxford. A member of the AI & Arts Group at the Alan Turing Institute, he recently wrote university preparation courses in academic studies and the history of human creativity and the impact of Artificial Intelligence.

A Fellow of two learned societies, and a member of TAS West Oxfordshire, Justin is a frequent lecturer for The Arts Society.