Apart from the very moving visits to the private residences designed and fitted out by Charles and Margaret, our stay in Glasgow in early autumn included two highlights
Prior to our departure, the Association had approached Joseph Sharples, the newly appointed curator of the Hunterian Art Gallery, for an interview.
It should be noted that the University of Glasgow, of which the Hunterian Art Gallery is a part, is the custodian of the entire Mackintosh estate. This includes some of their artworks, sketches and drawings, CRM watercolours, furniture and objects from their Glasgow home, as well as their correspondence, including the letters Charles wrote to Margaret from Port-Vendres in 1927 (published as ‘The Chronycle’).
We were delighted with his positive response and were able to meet him for a very pleasant chat.
The purpose was to get to know each other and to find out the Hunterian’s position on the use that the association could make of certain media that are vital for our centres: photographic portraits, videos and extracts from correspondence… Joseph Sharples proved to be an attentive interlocutor to all our requests and promised to follow them up, which we hope will be favourable.
Excellent news for the long term: he also specified that the Hunterian would be favourable to a translation into French of “The Chronycle” in partnership with the association. We have invited him to join in the celebrations in September 2023 for the centenary of the arrival of the Mackintoshes in Roussillon. We remain in contact with him and hope for a fruitful collaboration
To visit the web page of The Hunterian’s website dedicated to the Mackintosh collection click on the link below:
Meeting with the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society
The centenary of the Mackintoshes’ arrival in Roussillon was also the focus of our tea at the Willow tea-rooms, to which we were graciously invited by David Cairns, President-elect of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, and Stuart Robertson, who is its Director.
The atmosphere of our conversation was warm and relaxed for this second meeting with them both and the smoked salmon and sticky toffee pudding were delicious!
A group of members of the CRM Society will be visiting us during the planned celebrations in 2023 and the association is preparing to give them a warm welcome.
Finally, we were treated to a private tour of the museum area adjacent to the tea room itself, created and decorated by Charles and Margaret in 1903, and a discreet foray into the “Salon de Luxe” for private functions. A great time for us and many thanks to them for their hospitality
To visit the Original Willow Tearooms Building click on the link below
