The
Little Bay, Port Vendres
(watercolour, 1927)
Hunterian
Art Gallery, Glasgow University
Townscapes
Charles
Rennie Mackintosh, a Glaswegian architect, artist and
designer, was a major exponent of the Art Nouveau style.
When he designed a building he also designed the furniture
and fittings, so that everything both inside and outside,
was in harmony. His great architectural masterpiece was
the Glasgow School of Art, built between 1897-99 and 1907-09.
The
Little Bay is one of a series of watercolours painted
towards the end of his life, when Mackintosh and his wife
Margaret McDonald, who was also an artist, settled in
the small town of Port Vendres in the south of France.
This
painting is composed in three distinct sections: the foreground,
which is enclosed by a wall and steps; the mid-ground,
which features the lapping waves, boats, huts, and a jetty;
and the background, which is filled with buildings that
rise up from the edge of the bay.
In
the foreground, the artist plays with patterns that echo
one another. The zigzag shape of the wall on the left
recurs in its own shadow, which in turn is echoed by the
shape of the stairs on the right and the shadow of the
hand rail that is cast upon them.
In
the mid-ground, the patterns are more complex. The elliptical
curves of the waves are interrupted by the vertical reflections
of the buildings on the far shore. The rhythmic movement
of the waves is echoed by the arrangement of boats on
the sand. These elements act as a counter- balance to
the curved path in the foreground. As a counterpoint to
all these curves, Mackintosh arranges patterns of angled
lines across the mid-ground. He starts on the left with
the two flag poles; moves right to the oars on the jetty;
down to the planks at the water's edge; up to the masts
on the boat; up further to the three long shadows on the
jetty wall; and finally, ends with the parallel strips
of wood nailed to the roof of the largest hut.
In
the background, the buildings are arranged in a geometric
patchwork of orange roofs with white sunlit and grey shaded
walls.
The
colour in this painting uses a very limited palette. Apart
from the strong wedge of blue water which is counterbalanced
by the complementary orange of the roofs, the keel of
a boat and a shed, the colours consists mostly of subdued
greys. The watercolour paint is applied in very thin washes,
which allows the brightness of the white paper to shine
through the pigment to create the painting's luminous
sunlit quality.
Key
Notes about Charles Rennie Mackintosh
