Doves and Dreams

 

The traveling art exhibition Doves and Dreams, which can be seen at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (through April 22nd), is a long overdue retrospective of the work of one my favorite Victorian women artists, Frances Macdonald, and her husband, James Herbert McNair.

Frances and her sister Margaret were artists who participated in creating the famous Glasgow Style -- which has all too often been credited to Charles Rennie Mackintosh alone, and thus also been called the Mackintosh Style. As the exhibition curators note: "The careers of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his artist-wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh are well documented and internationally celebrated. The achievements of the other members of the ‘Glasgow Four’ -– Frances Macdonald McNair (1873- 1921) and J. Herbert McNair (1868-1955) -- have however only been partially assessed. The exhibition Doves and Dreams aims to present for the first time the full narrative of their lives and reveal the artists themselves as among the most consistently inventive and individual artist-designers of that period in Britain. The McNairs' story is presented in three chronological sections: the experimental student and studio years of the 1890s in Glasgow; domesticity, success and tragedy in Liverpool in the early 1900s; and the disappointments and creativity of the final years in Glasgow."

Frances and Margaret attended the famous Glasgow School of Art, which was known at the turn of the century for such shockingly progressive ideas as training men and women with equal rigor, and for teaching craft work, illustration and design as serious arts in their own right. The sisters made a splash as young artists in Glasgow by creating distinctive, highly-stylized art consisting of long, attenuated figures, inspired by faery lore and epic Romance. Their work appeared in the influential Yellow Book, where it enchanted some and scandalized others -- the latter of whom derided their work by naming it the "Spook School" of art. As Frances and Margaret became friendly with (and eventually married) the young Glasgow architects J. Herbert McNair and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the "Glasgow Four" began working on a wide variety of projects together (paintings, posters, interior design, stained glass, metalwork, etc.), out of which the distinct look known as the Glasgow Style evolved.

The two couples married, and the McNairs moved to Liverpool in 1899, though they continued to exhibit with the Mackintoshes in Glasgow, Vienna, and elsewhere. As CR Mackintosh became more and more famous in the early years of the 20th century, JH McNair sank into obscurity; he took to drink and eventually abandoned his art altogether. Frances, who continued to paint, left her husband for a time -- the work from this period portraying the conflict she felt between her marriage and her art. Frances died in 1921, possibly by suicide. Her husband then burned most of her work, and only a small portion survives today.

The Walker Art Gallery's website is worth perusing, for it features quite a lot of material on Frances and Herbert and the times they lived in. There's also a beautiful (though expensive) art book based on the exhibition, Doves and Dreams, and a terrific book on the wider group of women artists who contributed to the success of the Glasgow Style: Glasgow Girls by Jude Burkhauser.

Charles Vess recommends the book Art Nouveau from Mackintosh to Liberty: The Birth of a Style by Victor Arwas, which includes several rare pictures by Frances Macdonald. You'll also find good book and website recommendations by Kara Kellar Bell over on the Interstitial Arts discussion board (12/07/06 post).

The art in this post is by Frances Macdonald and J. Herbert McNair, as follows: 1) Poster design by McNair, 2) Prudence and Desire by Macdonald, 3) Tis a Long Wandering Path that Leads to Desire by Macdonald, 4) Poster design by Macdonald, 5) Ysighlu by McNair, 6) Man Makes the Beads of Life but Woman Must Thread Them by Macdonald, 7) Spring by Macdonald.

Comments

[jenclair]

I've loved the work of the "Glasgow Four" for some time, appreciating the application of beauty to any object. Thanks for the links.

[Charles Vess]

I wish that I could make it over to see this exhibition, the MacDonald sisters are among my favorite artists. I did immediately order the catalog though.

Charles