Lot 20: Frances Macdonald MacNair (1874-1921)

The Sleeping Princess
signed 'FRANCES MACDONALD MACNAIR' (lower left) and inscribed 'THE SLEEPING PRINCESS' (on the backboard)
pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour and gold, on vellum
5 3/4 x 18 7/8 in. (14.7 x 47.8 cm.) (2)

Liverpool, Sandon Gallery, 1908.
Glasgow, Glasgow Museum Art Galleries, Mackintosh Watercolours, July 1978-January 1979, no. 14.
London, Barbican Art Gallery, The Last Romantics 1989, no. 410. Japan, Suntory Museum, The Isetan Museum of Art and The Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style, 15 September 2000- 18 February 2001, p.104.

R. Billcliffe, Mackintosh Watercolours, London, 1978, p. 47, no. XIV.

THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE GORDON HOUSE

The watercolours produced by Frances Macdonald from the early 1890s until circa 1915 are arguably the most accomplished of all such work produced by the Glasgow artists and designers known as 'The Four'.

Frances and her elder sister Margaret (1864-1933) were born in the Midlands. They moved to Glasgow where they enroled in the art school. Both became successful designers, watercolourists and embroiderers. Here they met J. Herbert MacNair (1868-1955, who married Frances in 1899) and Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928, who married Margaret Macdonald in 1900). They formed the partnership known as 'The Four' whose designs pioneered the Glasgow Style. In the mid-1890s the imagery produced by these artists was so intense, personal and obscure that they were nicknamed 'The Spook School' by friends and critics alike.

The Glasgow Style was at its most typical in the works of Frances and Margaret who developed their own stylised, semi-Symbolist, mixed-media art. According to a later critic their images 'defy explanation, but the intended effect is all too clear... distorted figures - emaciated and elongated - strong colour (concentrating on blue and green) and symbols of mystery disclose fertile and impressionable imaginations...' (R. Billcliffe, op.cit., p. 12).

Frances' style, characterised by her interest in symbolism, mythology and fairy subjects, is exemplified in the present watercolour; the elongated figure swirling in stylised roses and threads of gold evokes spiritual and poetic qualities. Hues of blues and purples complement the dreamlike composition and add to its mysticism. The beautiful woman floating serenely in a watery world, echoes one of her best known works, Ophelia, of 1898.

In 1908 Frances exhibited a series of pictures at the Sandon Gallery, Liverpool. The exhibition was extended to the London Salon. Two new pictures were added to the exhibit: The Rose and The Birth of the Rose, also called The Sleeping Princess. It has been suggested that this is almost certainly the present watercolour. Frances executed an earlier pastel version of Sleeping Princess around 1895, now in the Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries. The earlier version is very much in the decorative spirit of the emerging Viennese Secessionist style and the work of Gustav Klimt. This present version, like its predecessor refers directly to the traditional fairytale of the Sleeping Beauty surrounded by stylised thorny roses. Recent critiques of feminism to these works suggest that the Macdonald sisters, as their style developed, began using imagery to explore their own sexuality and their roles as artists, wives and mothers in a male-dominated profession. Whilst there is no key to unlock the sometimes impenetrable iconography of the works of MacNair, if we consider the original exhibiting title The Birth of the Rose, one can also interpret this scene as a celebration of motherhood and fertility. The rose containing the child symbolises the womb of the sleeping woman or perhaps represents the protection of motherhood. The artist has used archetypical Glasgow Style imagery with her flowing hair, billowing dress and curled roses. This same language can be seen in an earlier watercolour on vellum by MacNair that was sold in these Rooms The Frog Prince 13 May 1993, lot 827 (sold for £39,000).

MacNair rarely appears at auction as the body of her work was tragically depleted after her death. Herbert MacNair, her husband, broken by her loss, destroyed most of her work as well as his own.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.