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Born on 7th June 1868 in Glasgow, he was the second son in a
family of eleven children. Born with a contracted sinew (club
foot), doctors prescribed lots of exercise in clean fresh air
and encouraged more family holidays. This pleased Mackintosh as
it gave him the opportunity to explore and use his artistic flair
by sketching countryside scenes.
On his return he made friends with a fellow architect, Herbert McNair who also worked at Honeyman and Keppie. They both wanted to experiment with more decorative styles and attended the Glasgow School together. Two sisters, Frances and Margaret Macdonald were also students at the school and showed the same understanding of design as Mackintosh and Herbert. Under the guidance of Frances Newberry, the headmaster, he brought the four together and exhibited their work at a school exhibition. They soon became known as "The Four" and their "new style of Art" stood apart - this style is known today as the "Glasgow Style". "The Four" continued to work closely together and began to experiment with other materials by producing designs for furniture, stain glass and metalwork. So tight knit were the group that Mackintosh married Margaret in 1900, just one year after Herbert had married her sister Frances. Mackintosh continued to work at Honeyman and Keppie, and in 1897 was awarded the prestigious commission of designing a new building for the Glasgow School of Art. Constructed over two phases due to lack of funds it was finally finished in 1909. This was to be Mackintosh's masterpiece as the building and its interior is a representation of his finest work and is definitely worth a visit. Other projects that Mackintosh is renowned for working on include
his marital home (The Mackintosh House). Together with his wife
Margaret, they transformed the interior by experimenting with
colour and design. It was filled with Mackintosh sculptural furniture
such as the high-back chair, and stylised cabinets. It also heavily
featured the distinctive rose motif, which is so recognisable
as Mackintosh. Today th e contents of their home at Florentine
Terrace reside at the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow. The nearest Mackintosh ever came to producing his own dream home was a private commission for the publisher, Walter Blackie. This famous domestic project is known as "The Hill House". Walter was so in owe of Mackintosh's work that he asked him to design a family home. Once completed, Walter was so impressed with the finished result that he lived in the home until his death.
By 1913 Mackintosh was getting very little work, his last public
commission was for the Scotland Street School in 1906, so he left
his practice Honeyman and Keppie and moved to London with Margaret.
He started to paint watercolours of flowers and experiment with
textile designs. Companies such as Liberty & Co and F.W. Grafton
took some of his designs but when he moved to France in 1923 it
was virtually the end of his design career. He painted some watercolours
for an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries but then had to return
to England when struck with ill-health. Charles Rennie Mackintosh
passed away at the age of 60 in 1928, four years later Margaret
joined him. Mackintosh designs really began to get public acclaim when in 1975 Sotheby's auction house held a sale of his work and the high-back chairs sold for record prices. Just four years ago in 2002 a private collection was placed under the hammer at Christies, the entire auction fetched £3.2 million with a star lot being a jewel-encrusted writing bureau from Walter Blackie's "Hill House" which realised £996,000 and one of the high-back chairs from Kate Cranston's tearooms m ade £380,650. A highly accomplished artist and designer, Mackintosh was way ahead of his time. He has left behind an artistic legacy and is considered to be an architectural icon. His simplistic stylised ideas excelled in some many different areas, making him the contemporary design genius that we know today! For more information visit www.crmsociety.com
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Often
referred to as a "Pioneer for the Modern Movement",
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a talented architect, artist and
interior designer. His distinctive style was created by the use
of Scottish, Japanese and Celtic influences along with fluid Art
Nouveau lines and symbolic modernist shapes. His unique, innovative
style has achieved record prices at auction ensuring Mackintosh
worldwide acclaim as one of the most celebrated designers of the
20th Century. 
Alongside
his architectural career Mackintosh studied at the Glasgow School
of Art where his flair for drawing continued to flourish. He won
many prizes including the Alexander Thomson Travelling Scholarship
in 1890, which allowed Mackintosh a trip to Italy, to study the
architecture. 
A
dream project came in the form of a competition in a German design
magazine. Entrants had to design "a house in a thoroughly
modern style". Mackintosh entered with his drawings for "The
House of an Art Lover" he didn't win, but the judges were
so impressed with his drawings that they later reproduced them
as prints. "The House of an Art Lover" was Mackintosh's
idea of his dream home and was eventually constructed between
1989 and 1996 in Glasgow by using his original drawings. 
The
"Willow Tea Rooms" owned by entrepreneur Kate Cranston
was another of Mackintosh's most celebrated projects. Kate gave
him complete artistic freedom to design the interior. The rooms
were filled with screens, high-back chairs, light fittings and
he even re-designed the exterior façade. These rooms have
since been recreated so that visitors can enjoy their afternoon
tea in true Mackintosh opulent style.