Writing Desk

Designer: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1869-1928.

1904

48 in. (121.9 cm.) x 32 in. (81.3 cm.) x 16 ½ in. (41.9 cm.)

Wood (probably Kauri pine) painted white

In 1904 Mackintosh was commissioned by Catherine Cranston's husband to remodel and furnish their house Hous'hill. It would be the last domestic commission of any consequence which Mackintosh received in Glasgow and the development of the style he began here can only be seen in the work at Northampton carried out ten years later. [Commentary continues below.]

Included in the commission were two bedrooms, the Blue Bedroom for Miss Cranston and her husband furnished in oak, and the White Bedroom and drawing room, where all the furniture except two small chairs was painted in white. Mackintosh had started to paint his bedrooms white in 1898 at Westdel, Glasgow, and he continued to use white in all the bedrooms he designed until 1904. The white paint is usually associated with shapes or decoration in organic forms - leaves, tendrils, roses and petals. The Hous'hill furniture, however, is predominately linear and geometric in form and decoration. It is a rationalisation of a process of simplification in Mackintosh's designs for furniture which had begun the previous year at The Hill House, Helensburgh.

The contrasting of white pieces against a single black painted item like a chair also stems from The Hill House; this was the last occasion that Mackintosh was to paint his furniture white.

As it was not a family bedroom Mackintosh duplicated all the items except writing desk. There are, therefore, two beds, two washstands, etc. In 1933 when the Hous'hill furniture was sold in auction the White Bedroom pieces were divided. The furniture exhibited here retains its original painted surface but the other furniture from the room has been re-finished. It is extremely rare to find Mackintosh white furniture still in its original condition; all of the white furniture in the house (now collection Hunterian Art Gallery) and at The Hill House has been repainted and the only other substantial quantity of work still in its original condition is the group of three pieces designed for the bedroom at Windyhill (collection Glasgow School of Art). — Roger Billcliffe.

Bibliography

Billcliffe, Roger. Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Complete Furniture, Furniture Designs and Interiors. 1986; pp. 16-17, 161-65,173-175, Nos. 1904.89, 1904.92, 1904.91,19

Spring '84. Exhibition catalogue. London: Fine Art Society, 1984.

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Created 13 June 2010;

last modified 24 October 2021