Charles Rennie Mackintosh

I spotlighted Norman Rockwell a few posts ago, now it's time to go back across the Atlantic to look at another of my favourites: Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Born 7 June 1868 in Glasgow, Scotland. Sun Gemini with stellium (Mercury Uranus, Venus) in Cancer, Capricorn Moon. No birthtime available.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh had many and diverse ways of using his talent. Watercolours, posters, furniture design, architecture, interior design. This diversity is fitting for a Sun Gemini. His Uranus/Mercury conjunction is well represented by the avant garde styles he presented to an often astonished public. I love every aspect of this artist's work.

The Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society website http://www.crmsociety.com/hislifeandwork.aspx explains that

"Mackintosh took his inspiration from our Scottish traditions and blended them with the flourish of Art Nouveau and the simplicity of Japanese forms."

Mackintosh's talent, which I categorise as genius, didn't bring him the accolades he deserved in his own lifetime. In "The Mackintosh Style" by Elizabeth Wilhide the author remarks that

"Sheer bad luck, professional setbacks and misunderstanding conspired to provide Mackintosh with what has been described as "a tragically small range of opportunities".

A proud and difficult temperament only made matters worse and gave a sad inevitability to his decline. What began so brilliantly ended in self-imposed exile, near-penury and almost critical eclipse."

Perhaps the opposition between Uranus/Mercury in Cancer and Moon in Capricorn might suggest the internal struggle which made his temperament "difficult"? Was the Pluto in Taurus generation to which he belonged too entrenched in the status quo to to appreciate his genius ?

It is poignant and ironic to note that his furniture and artwork now sell for millions of pounds and dollars, yet at the time of his death his entire estate which comprised the contents of two studios was assessed at 88 pounds ($136.40). Mackintosh buildings were being demolished as late as mid-20th century, whereas today they are prized for the treasures they truly are. Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a genius, unacknowledged in his own time but now fully appreciated at last.