FRANCES + MARGARET MacDONALD: ‘SPOOK SCHOOL’ SISTERS: Glasgow Four, with husbands Herbert MacNair + Charles Rennie MacIntosh, influenced KLIMT, Wien, Darmstadt, Dresden, Munchen, Budapest, Torino, Venezia, Moscow Secessionists

FRANCES MacNAIR: A POND: 1894

A Pond is one of the items that first prompted some negative Glasgow critics to label Frances and Margaret MacDonald, two sisters and members with their respective husbands Herbert MacNair and Charles Rennie MacIntosh in the Glasgow Four, the ‘Spook School Sisters.’

THE HEART OF THE ROSE  by MARGARET MacDONALD: 1901

Margaret MacDonald: 1865 – 1933

AUTUMN by FRANCES MacNAIR: 1898

 

After a long period of neglect in their home town (where they had been accused of being traitors during World War I because of their associations with German and Austrian artists),  a revival of interest in them started in the late sixties, with Continental researchers showing how they influenced many artists in Ireland, England, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.

 

Frances MacNair (nee MacDonald), below

FRANCES MacNAIR: OPHELIA: 1898

FRANCES MacNAIR (nee MacDonald): THE CHOICE

MARGARET MacDONALD: THE WHITE ROSE AND THE RED ROSE: 1903

The red rose whispers of passion

And the white rose breathes of love

O the red rose is a falcon, 

And the white rose is a dove

John Boyle O’Reilly

 

MARGARET MacDONALD: SUMMER: CIRCA 1894

MARGARET MacDONALD: LA MORT PARFUMEE

MARGARET MacDONALD: OPERA OF THE WINDS

FRANCES MacNAIR: SPRING: 1897

MARGARET MacDONALD: MAY QUEEN: 1900

MARGARET MacDONALD: OH YE, ALL THAT WALK IN WILLOWOOD

FRANCES MacNAIR: ILL OMEN: 1894

FRANCES MacNAIR: BOWS, BEADS AND BIRDS

FRANCES MacNAIR: SLEEPING PRINCESS: 1909 – 1915

MACDONALD SISTERS: DROOKO: JOSEPH WRIGHT  GLASGOW UMBRELLA FACTORY