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James Herbert MacNair (23 December 1868 – 22 April 1955), was a Scottish artist,
George P. Landow, ''The Victorian Web''. Retrieved 27 May 2017. Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, and other
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 artist, designer
A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans.
In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
and teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
whose work contributed to the development of the Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style)
The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It is the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native ...
during the 1890s.
Early life
Born inGlasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
into a military family, MacNair trained as an architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
with the Glasgow firm of Honeyman and Keppie
Honeyman and Keppie was a major architectural firm based in Glasgow, created by John Honeyman and John Keppie in 1888 following the death of James Sellars in whose architectural practice Keppie had worked. Their most notable employee was Charles ...
from 1888 to 1895, and it was there that he first met Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdo ...
. As part of their training, the two attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...
between 1888 and 1894, and it was there that they met the MacDonald sisters, Margaret and Frances
Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the F ...
. MacNair would go on to marry Frances, and Mackintosh would marry Margaret.
The Four
All four later became the loose collective of theGlasgow School
The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook 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
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an movements such as Symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
Arts
* Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism
** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
** Russian sym ...
and Art Nouveau, they pioneered the Glasgow Style. MacNair set up his own studio in Glasgow in 1895, where he worked as a designer producing furniture, book illustrations, water colours and posters. 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
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
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
''Interiors'' is a 1978 American drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E. G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, and Sam Waterston.
Allen's first ful ...
, exhibiting a Writing Room at the International Exhibition of Modern Art in Turin. They also exhibited in Liverpool, London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
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, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
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