According to Claire E. Jones with InquiriesJournal.com, “Margaret and Frances Macdonald embodied this ‘new woman’ with their status and education as professional artists and the visual motifs that they accordingly employed. They managed to combine feminine and masculine characteristics into one figure in their works, effectively establishing an androgynous figure. In the process they managed to establish an equality, if not superiority, of women and men.
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The director, Francis H. Newbery, was committed to an excellence in art that combined functionalism with beauty while encouraging individuality and experimentation among his students. Here the instructors trained the Macdonald girls as professional artists. This is also where they met their future husbands, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and James Herbert McNair. These four youths came to be known as the “Glasgow Four” during their time at the school.”
I think these ladies seem pretty awesome and I love the way their work seems to sway. AND they are the first female painters I’ve blogged about. Their styles are similar, but still unique to each of them. So inspiring! I can’t wait to learn about more artists.
Click here for last week’s artist from history
Jayne.press 
Hello. We thought that you might be interested to know that the image shown in your post is a detail taken from the large gesso freeze: “The Seven Princesses” made by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh in 1906. This is now in the MAK Museum in Vienna. They produced an interesting blog post about this work a few years ago ( it can be found with a search for “The Waerndorfer-Fries in the MAK-Schausammlung Vienna 1900” ). Frances Macdonald McNair’s work was largely destroyed after her death by her husband. The whole period was very tragic and the losses immense. Of her surviving work the largest group is in Glasgow’s Hunterian collection who list around 100 pieces. Best wishes. duille.com
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Thank you so much for that information! You were right. I was interested. I didn’t know that her husband destroyed her work. It’s good to hear that she have surviving pieces. I’ll have to look her up. Maybe I’ll write a follow up post. I’m glad I was able to at least introduce their work.
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