During the week of Toshie’s birthday, Clara Silber once again delighted us with two talks, but on different themes from her previous talk on Margaret. Whilst she did not focus on Charles’s wife, she did not overlook her either, and also discussed the works of the ‘Glasgow Four’ ’ (Charles, Margaret, her sister Frances and their brother-in-law Herbert Mac-Nair).
On Wednesday 3rd June, her lecture on the influences that ran through the works of the ‘Glasgow Four’ was a resounding success in front of a packed audience. Clara guided us through the threads of these influences, which can be detected in their watercolours, architectural works and decorative elements of their interior design. Beginning with the influence Charles’s father had on his early love of nature and flowers, she went on to discuss the Art Nouveau movement, the Celtic Revival, the Arts & Crafts movement and the craze for the minimalist Japanese style, to name but a few.
On Friday 5th June, Clara explored a theme close to her heart that has received little attention in relation to the works of Charles, Margaret and Frances: symbolism in their art. ‘Partly Seen and Partly Imagined’ was the title of a watercolour by Charles from 1896; this preoccupation of the ‘Glasgow Four’ was very much a reality at the turn of the 20th century. Viewing their works through this lens, we find clear parallels with the symbol of the Rose, but also with Egyptian and Celtic symbolism, numerology, and so on…
A big thank you to Clara for her research and all the work she has put in, which has enabled us to discover a new aspect of the Mackintosh couple’s work. We very much hope that she will be able to support the association by further exploring and promoting these themes.