Watercolour over pencil, 15.5 by 24 cm (6 by 9 ½ ins)

Provenance: Galleries, Glasgow, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Memorial Exhibition, 1933; William Meldrum thence by descent; subsequently gifted to The Glasgow Art Society

Literature: Roger Billcliffe, Charles Rennie Mackintosh: The Complete Furniture, Furniture Drawings & Interior Designs, Cameron & Hollis, 2009, pp.132-133, illus.1901.67.

14 Kinsborough Gardens was an important early Mackintosh scheme dating from a year before the commission for a building that is widely regarded as one of his masterpieces, Hill House in Helensburgh. The house was the home of Mr Robert J.Rowat White, Roger Billcliffe (op cit) referring to Mackintosh’s notably feminine interior for the building with “stylised flowers” decorating the walls.

Fig.1 – Drawing Room, Fireplace and Fitting Seating at 14 Kinsborough Gardens (photograph from 1902)