Charles Rennie Mackintosh - Une immigré
ecossaise Written and photographed by Simon Newman
The notion of design means different things to different people.
To some, it carries a mere functional resonance but to others
it has a more rarefied and abstract feel. Really good
design occurs when an item’s fitness for purpose results
in an aesthetic that instinctively seems right.
There can be few who would argue that one of the best exponents
of design in the last century was the enigmatic, Glasgow-born
architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Probably best known for the
Glasgow School of Art building and the exquisite Willow Tea Rooms,
he also designed a stunningly elegant dining-chair that became
his signature piece. But his catalogue of work is so huge that
to single out any one achievement is to do him a deep injustice.
Not that this however stops aficionados world-wide arguing continually
over the best example of his work; something that ultimately has
to come down to personal taste.
For me, the Glasgow School of Art building has just too much
of an industrial feel to it, but his extraordinary ‘House
for an Art Lover’ has a celestial incandescence that send
shivers down my spine. Only completed in the Nineties, this building
was inspired by Mackintosh’s entry for a German magazine
competition nearly a century earlier. There is so much to be in
awe of here. The Music room, for example, where the combination
of the art-nouveau stained-glass windows, graceful white furniture
and Japanese lanterns is so dazzling that it almost hurts to look.
If this vision does not stir the very core of your being, then
you have no soul and should go back to Twitter or whatever other
mind-numbing exercise you were doing earlier, at once.
Aside from his buildings and furniture, Mackintosh was also an
accomplished artist, specializing in water-color landscapes. Now
if that sounds bland, don’t be fooled. Mackintosh had an
almost child-like way of distorting perspective and he would mischievously
omit certain topographical features yet include others from his
imagination. If you compare the real view to his painting, there
is no question that he captured its essence; but that’s
where the similarity ended.
What is not widely known is that towards the end of his life
he and his wife Margaret (herself an accomplished artist) came
to live in French Catalunya, close to the border with Spain. Sadly,
the reasons for their move were not the happiest. After an earlier
meteoric rise, Mackintosh became seriously depressed when his
Glasgow architectural practice folded and all attempts to find
work in London failed abjectly.
Initially their stay was to be just a few months, but they lingered
on in their low-rent accommodation at the Hotel du Commerce overlooking
the fishing boats in the harbor at Port Vendres. They lived hand
to mouth, scraping by with what little they earned from selling
Margaret’s water-colors of local flora and fauna. Mackintosh
was always generous with praise for his wife’s work, once
recording in his diary - I had merely talent. Margaret had
genius. The couple ended up staying over four years, a period
Charles declared in the same diary to be the happiest of his life.
The relief from the setbacks he endured in Britain galvanized
the designer into rekindling his love of art and he set about
painting local scenes around the harbor at Port Vendres. At much
the same time Picasso and Matisse were painting and successfully
selling their work in the nearby and conspicuously more fashionable
resort of Collioure. But Mackintosh shunned their modernist approach
and kept faith with his singular figurative style. He eventually
produced over forty Mediterranean water-colors but his work was
never considered commercial during his own lifetime. Peter Trowles,
curator of the Mackintosh collection at the Glasgow School of
Art observed, “Today each of Mackintosh’s paintings
would fetch well into seven figures if they came to auction. Ironically,
Charles Mackintosh’s estate was valued at just over $100
when he died in 1928.”
If you’re visiting the area, a must is Le Chemin de Mackintosh,
a guided trail around the harbor of Port Vendres. At various points
you can compare the actual view to the permanent displays that
feature Mackintosh’s interpretation of the scene. And you
can see where the couple lived at the old Hotel du Commerce, which
until a couple of years ago was badly run-down but is now turned
into trendy apartments.
After his death in London (where he had been receiving treatment
for throat cancer) Margaret returned to Catalunya and scattered
her husband’s ashes from the dockside at Port Vendres. A
fitting send-off for someone who found so much peace in this beautiful
part of the Mediterranean.
There’s a new exhibition at the port and local traders
are happy with the renewed interest in their celebrated immigré
ecossaise (Scottish immigrant). Owner of Les Templiers bar, Joseph
Pous, said “Mackintosh himself patronised this very establishment
in my grandmother’s day. If he can still pull in the tourists
so they spend their money in my bar, I shall have no hesitation
in drinking to his memory. Salut!”
For more information about Charles Rennie Mackintosh visit
www.crmsociety.com
Simon Newman is
a freelance travel and features writer living in Catalunya,
close to the French/Spanish border. "I love straddling
two cultures. My passion is in people and the way they relate
to the world as they see it. Human fragility and eccentricity
provide eternal colour to my canvas. For me, it's what makes
life interesting."
