Details

Object type

print; planographic print

Title

Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts

Artist/Maker

Carter & Pratt printer

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh designer

Frances Macdonald designer

James Herbert MacNair designer

Culture/School

Glasgow Style

Date

circa 1895

Materials

lithograph, paper

Dimensions

framed: 2515 mm x 1178 mm x 20 mm; unframed: 2185 mm x 877 mm

Description

Lithograph poster titled 'Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts', designed by James Herbert McNair, Frances Macdonald and Margaret Macdonald. Printed by Carter and Pratt, Glasgow, on four joined sheets of paper.

This poster was designed by the Macdonald Sisters and McNair. Together with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, they became known as 'The Four'. This is typical of their early work which features ethereal elongated forms and a highly symbolic content that led them to be dubbed 'The Spook School'.

The two figures in this poster are beginning to fuse with plant forms, their lower halves hidden behind stems, suggesting that they grow from the same seed. The main focal point is the open flower clasped by the woman's hands. The thorned rose stems (which frame the poster), the stretched flanking flowers, the downwards raptured gaze of the couple and the swirling of their hair all force the eye to rest on this central bloom.

The seed is an increasingly important device of this period, always sprouting from the centre of the ground line of the figurative composition. Making early appearances at the very top of the poster are stylised Glasgow roses and arc-winged flying birds; both motifs evolve and become favourites of The Four.

Credit Line/Donor

Presented by Mrs Alice Talwin Morris, 1939

ID Number

PR.1977.13.au

Location

In storage