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James Herbert McNair (23 December 1868 – 22 April 1955), was a
George P. Landow, ''The Victorian Web''. Retrieved 27 May 2017. Influenced by the
James Herbert McNair.
''Mackintosh Architecture'', University of Glasgow. Retrieved 27 May 2017. He returned to Glasgow where he worked as a postman and as a manager in a garage. After the death of his wife in 1921, McNair destroyed all of their works that he had in his possession. He then moved to an old people's home, where he lived until his death in 1955.
Works by MacNair in the Hunterian Art Gallery Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macnair, Herbert 1868 births 1955 deaths 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Scottish painters Glasgow School Scottish designers Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau designers Art Nouveau illustrators Scottish illustrators 19th-century Scottish architects Scottish furniture designers Artists from Glasgow 19th-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists
James Herbert McNair (23 December 1868 – 22 April 1955), was a Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...
, designer
A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...
and teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
whose work contributed to the development of the Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style)
The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It was the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of ...
during the 1890s.
Early life
Born inGlasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
into a military family, McNair trained as an architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
with the Glasgow firm of Honeyman and Keppie
Honeyman and Keppie was a major architectural firm based in Glasgow, created by John Honeyman (architect), John Honeyman and John Keppie in 1888 following the death of James Sellars in whose architectural practice Keppie had worked. Their most no ...
from 1888 to 1895, and it was there that he first met Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...
. As part of their training, the two attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; ) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and design. These are all awa ...
between 1888 and 1894, and it was there that they met the MacDonald sisters, Margaret
Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...
and Frances
Frances is an English given name or last name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'the French.' The male version of the name in English is Francis (given name), Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "F ...
. McNair would go on to marry Frances, and Mackintosh would marry Margaret.
The Four
All four later became the loose collective of theGlasgow School
The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook Schoo ...
known as "The Four", McNair being the least well known.James Herbert MacNair, 1868-1955: A Brief Biography.George P. Landow, ''The Victorian Web''. Retrieved 27 May 2017. Influenced by the
Arts and Crafts movement
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.
Initiat ...
, and other Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an movements such as Symbolism
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
*Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea
Arts
*Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea
** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...
and Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
, they pioneered the Glasgow Style. McNair set up his own studio in Glasgow in 1895, where he worked as a designer producing furniture
Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...
, book illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
s, water colours and poster
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
s. McNair’s artistic merits have often been compared unfavourably to those of Mackintosh, but he had significant influence as a teacher following his move to Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
in 1898 and appointment as Instructor in Design at the School of Architecture and Applied Art.
In 1899 Frances Macdonald joined McNair in Liverpool and the two married. The couple painted watercolours and designed interiors
''Interiors'' is a 1978 American drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E. G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, and Sam Waterston.
Allen's first ...
, exhibiting a Writing Room at the International Exhibition of Modern Art in Turin. They also exhibited in Liverpool, London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
and Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
in the early 1900s. Following closure of the School in 1905, and the loss of the McNair family wealth through business failure, the couple returned to Glasgow in 1909. McNair’s career went into decline from this period, and no works of his are known beyond 1911.
Later life
In 1913 McNair was working in Canada, in a chocolate factory and later a railway company.''Mackintosh Architecture'', University of Glasgow. Retrieved 27 May 2017. He returned to Glasgow where he worked as a postman and as a manager in a garage. After the death of his wife in 1921, McNair destroyed all of their works that he had in his possession. He then moved to an old people's home, where he lived until his death in 1955.
References
Further reading
* Robertson, Pamela, ed. ''Doves And Dreams: The Art of Frances Macdonald and James Herbert Mcnair''. Lund Humphries Publishers, 2006.External links
Works by MacNair in the Hunterian Art Gallery Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macnair, Herbert 1868 births 1955 deaths 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Scottish painters Glasgow School Scottish designers Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau designers Art Nouveau illustrators Scottish illustrators 19th-century Scottish architects Scottish furniture designers Artists from Glasgow 19th-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists