30 April 2008 at 2.00pm
King Street, London
Margaret MacDonald
Mackintosh (1864-1933)
The Heart of the Rose (above)
The White Rose and the Red Rose (below)
Estimate: £200,000-300,000 for each panel
An exquisite pair of panels which represent the pinnacle of Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh’s skill and imagination leads Christie’s London sale of 20th Century Decorative Art & Design on 4 May 2007. The sale features 100 lots spanning a wide variety of styles and materials from the beginning of 20th century until the present day; estimates range from £1,000 to £300,000.
The Heart of the Rose and The White Rose and the Red Rose (estimate:
£200,000-300,000 for each panel), a pair of painted and jewelled gesso
panels by Scottish artist Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864-1933), were
first displayed in the Rose Boudoir at the International Exhibition of
Modern Decorative Art in Turin, 1902. The Rose Boudoir, the result of a
collaboration between Margaret and her husband Charles Rennie Mackintosh,
defined a moment of consummate refinement in the evolution of the couple’s
oeuvre and these panels played a pivotal role. Remaining strongly
representative of the Glasgow avant-garde, they illustrate the rose theme
in a lyrical, symbolist manner in a subtle evocation of maternal and
sensual love. Following the Turin exhibition, the panels were purchased by
Fritz Wärndorfer, the great patron of the Viennese avant-garde, sponsor of
the Wiener Werkstätte and admirer of the Mackintoshes.