Charles Rennie Mackintosh

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (Scotland, 1868 - 1928) by Alivar.
"Armchair model 312 Willow". Edited in 1985.
Black stained ash and green leatherette upholstered seat.
It has marks of use.
Presents stamp on the inside of the seat cover.
Measurements: 119 x 94 x 43 cm.
This throne-shaped armchair is a 1985 edition of the model that Charles Rennie donated, in 1904, to the "Willow Tea Rooms" in Glasgow, his hometown. The tall semicircular backrest served to separate the entrance area from the tea room behind it. The back encompasses the seat, perfectly illustrating Mackintosh's geometric, Art Nouveau style. The creation of this chair involved the marriage of the most advanced technology and the finest carpentry skills. The latter can be seen in the precision required to assemble the components that make up the elegant, lightweight latticed frame.
Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer and watercolorist who played a key role in the Arts & Crafts movement and was also the leading exponent of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom. He decided to devote himself to architecture at the age of sixteen, and during his life he dedicated himself to transforming the buildings, furniture and art of Glasgow. Virtually all of his furniture creations were designed by Mackintosh for the tea rooms he decorated, the most famous of which was the Willow Tea Room. He rose to fame after exhibiting his pieces at the Vienna Secession exhibition of 1900. In fact, his style was one of the most prominent of modernism in its geometric version, also practiced by the Viennese. Thus, he developed a work marked by decorative sobriety and straight lines. He shares with organic modernism the search for asymmetry and inspiration in the plant world, but his interpretation is radically different. Most of his work is collected in the Hunterian Art Gallery of the University of Glasgow, as well as in the Metropolitan Museum and MoMA in New York, the Orsay Museum in Paris, the Design Museum, the Tate Gallery and the Victoria & Albert in London, among others.