‡ CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (1868-1928)
'BOULETERNÈRE', CIRCA 1925
watercolour with traces of pencil, signed with initials in pencil lower right CRM, and inscribed to reverse of sheet, possibly by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh D. BOULETENÈRE (SIC)/ C.R. MACKINTOSH
44cm x 44cm (frame size 72cm x 72cm x 3.5cm)
Provenance: Ronald W.B. Morris Esq., Kilmacolm, an executor of the Estate of Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, acquired after the Memorial Exhibition in 1933Christie's, Edinburgh, 'Fine Paintings and Drawings', April 27, 1989, Lot 570Donald & Eleanor Taffner, New YorkLyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh The Taffner Collection, 7 September 2012, lot 109Private European collection
Exhibited: Glasgow, McLellan Galleries Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh: Memorial Exhibition, May 1933, no. 136;Glasgow, Glasgow Museum and Art Galleries, Mackintosh Watercolours, July 1979, no. 201;Glasgow, The Fine Art Society, The Memorial Exhibition: A Reconstruction 1983, no. 136Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy Mackintosh Watercolours, 8th August - 5th October 1986, no. 48Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, May 25th - September 30th 1996; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 19th - February 16th 1996; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, March 29th - June 22nd 1997; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum, August 3rd - October 12th 1997, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow Museums Exhibition, Cat. No. 285Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Charles Rennie Mackintosh in France, 26th November - 5th February 2006, Cat. No. 292Literature: Billcliffe R. Mackintosh Watercolours, London 1978, p. 44, ill. p. 135, catalogue 201Robertson P. and Long P. Charles Rennie Mackintosh in France, Edinburgh 2006, pp. 34-5Crichton, Robin Monsieur Mackintosh: the Travels and Paintings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the Pyrénées-Orientales, Edinburgh 2006, pp. 63-5.The year 1923 saw the Mackintoshes move from London to France, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, at Amélie-les-Bains.  Low sales of their artwork, and an increasing number of architectural projects failing to come to fruition saw times become tight for the couple. They would have been encouraged to make the move by their circle of friends in London. Among them, notably, would have been fellow Scot and artist J.D. Fergusson and his partner Margaret Morris, who were both veterans of long sojourns working in France. As well as the obvious attractions of a change in light, climate and landscape, it made sense at a very practical level, offering a far cheaper way of life. France marked the first time in Mackintosh’s life where there were no distractions from or demands away from his painting practice. Perhaps inevitably for an architect, Mackintosh was drawn to the local townscapes of the area. He was not attracted to grandeur however, rather the organic occurrence of more vernacular groups of dwelling - like the town of Bouleternère, somewhat vertiginously arranged on a sloping hill, culminating in a pinnacle topped with small church of rudimentary form. As Margaret remarked in a letter to Jessie Newbery in1925, “the buildings here (in this region of France) are a perpetual joy to us”. These views were not directly topographical, instead often culminations of various viewpoints, arranged ‘just-so’ for the purposes of the paintings’ design.  Like many of the French works, Mackintosh employs pale tones demarked by sparer uses of colour in a high key that frequently depart from realism; here in the blue used to delineate the shadows cast by the overhang of the red tiled rooves. In addition, the French watercolours utilise a very foreshortened pictorial plane, a device that again enhances the sense of pattern and design that so distinctly defines his work across all the media and genres he turned his hand to. These artistic choices combine to produce works of great sophistication. The paintings produced in France – between 10-15 a year – are considered very important, being a period of “remarkable evolution in his artistic practice”, as his biographer Roger Billcliffe describes it. Their importance also lies in the chronology of Mackintosh’s output. As Billcliffe continues, “…these works underscore his innovative approach to landscape painting and suggest a promising future as a painter, tragically curtailed by his untimely death from cancer in 1928."