James Herbert MacNair on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
James Herbert MacNair (23 December 1868 – 22 April 1955), was a
George P. Landow, ''The Victorian Web''. Retrieved 27 May 2017. Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and other European movements such as Symbolism and
James Herbert McNair.
''Mackintosh Architecture'', University of Glasgow. Retrieved 27 May 2017. He returned to Glasgow where he worked as a postman and as a manager in a garage. After the death of his wife in 1921, MacNair destroyed all of their works that he had in his possession. He then moved to an old people's home, where he lived until his death in 1955.
Works by MacNair in the Hunterian Art Gallery Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macnair, Herbert 1868 births 1955 deaths 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Scottish painters Glasgow School Scottish designers Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau designers Art Nouveau illustrators Scottish illustrators 19th-century Scottish architects Scottish furniture designers Artists from Glasgow 19th-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists
James Herbert MacNair (23 December 1868 – 22 April 1955), was a Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
, designer and teacher whose work contributed to the development of the Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) during the 1890s.
Early life
Born in Glasgow into a military family, MacNair trained as an architect with the Glasgow firm of Honeyman and Keppie from 1888 to 1895, and it was there that he first met Charles Rennie Mackintosh. As part of their training, the two attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art between 1888 and 1894, and it was there that they met the MacDonald sisters,Margaret
Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian.
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...
and Frances. MacNair would go on to marry Frances, and Mackintosh would marry Margaret.
The Four
All four later became the loose collective of the Glasgow School known as "The Four", MacNair being the least well known.James Herbert MacNair, 1868-1955: A Brief Biography.George P. Landow, ''The Victorian Web''. Retrieved 27 May 2017. Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and other European movements such as Symbolism and
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
, they pioneered the Glasgow Style. MacNair set up his own studio in Glasgow in 1895, where he worked as a designer producing furniture
Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
, book illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
s, water colours
''Water Colours'' is the debut studio album by the American electronica band, Swimming With Dolphins. It was released on May 13, 2011 on iTunes and in physical CD format on May 17, 2011. On May 25, 2011, the band released a trailer for the album ...
and poster
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
s. MacNair's artistic merits have often been compared unfavourably to those of Mackintosh, but he had significant influence as a teacher following his move to Liverpool in 1898 and appointment as Instructor in Design at the School of Architecture and Applied Art.
In 1899 Frances Macdonald joined MacNair in Liverpool and the two married. The couple painted watercolours and designed interiors, exhibiting a Writing Room at the International Exhibition of Modern Art in Turin. They also exhibited in Liverpool, London, Vienna and Dresden in the early 1900s. Following closure of the School in 1905, and the loss of the MacNair family wealth through business failure, the couple returned to Glasgow in 1909. MacNair's career went into decline from this period, and no works of his are known beyond 1911.
Later life
In 1913 McNair was working in Canada, in a chocolate factory and later a railway company.''Mackintosh Architecture'', University of Glasgow. Retrieved 27 May 2017. He returned to Glasgow where he worked as a postman and as a manager in a garage. After the death of his wife in 1921, MacNair destroyed all of their works that he had in his possession. He then moved to an old people's home, where he lived until his death in 1955.
References
Further reading
* Robertson, Pamela, ed. ''Doves And Dreams: The Art of Frances Macdonald and James Herbert Mcnair''. Lund Humphries Publishers, 2006.External links
Works by MacNair in the Hunterian Art Gallery Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macnair, Herbert 1868 births 1955 deaths 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Scottish painters Glasgow School Scottish designers Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau designers Art Nouveau illustrators Scottish illustrators 19th-century Scottish architects Scottish furniture designers Artists from Glasgow 19th-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists