Publisher's Synopsis
The most significant British contribution to the international Art Nouveau style was the work of the "Glasgow Four". Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Herbert McNair, and two sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald. While Mackintosh was the most prolific and well-known of the group, Helland argues that the Macdonald sisters' work was misleadingly dismissed by the "modernist" tradition. Their work was actually very successful at the internationally important Vienna Secession exhibitions and in Germany.;As with many artists of this period, Frances and Margaret Macdonald worked in a wide variety of media including metal and glass, and with a particular emphasis on watercolour painting for murals and book illustration, all of which were dominated by images of women. In this, the first book-length study of their work, Helland looks at collaborative art production and the reception of their work as well as examining the debate between modernism and the decorative arts as it relates to the female producer.
