Charles Rennie Mackintosh ‘Invitation to a Glasgow School of Art Club Reception’ 1892. © The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow 2009.
Exhibition: Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow until January 16 2010.
Possibly the last known letter written by Charles Rennie Mackintosh is to go on display in a new exhibition at the Hunterian Gallery that will explore the great designer, architect and aesthete's relationship with the Glasgow School of Art.
Mackintosh wrote the letter from his hospital bed in London when he was terminally ill with cancer to Jessie Newbery, wife of Francis H. Newbery, Director of the Glasgow School of Art.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, ‘Design for Light Fittings for the Director’s Room’ 1904. © The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow 2009.
He updates her on his progress in hospital, thanks her for her flowers and signs the letter affectionately ‘Toshie.’ Jessie Newbery later recalled the 40-year friendship with Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald, ‘with never a rift between us … our lives were closely and affectionately interwoven.’
The exhibition will explore the role the School played in Mackintosh’s life, both as his architectural masterpiece, and as an educational institution and meeting ground for key lifelong friendships, which ranged from those with the School’s charismatic Headmaster, Francis Newbery, to his fellow students, including his future wife, Margaret Macdonald.
Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art forms part of Mackintosh 100, a citywide programme of events organised by the Mackintosh Heritage Group in the lead-up to the centenary of the Mackintosh building at the Glasgow School of Art in December this year.
