- Museum number
- 1981,1212.17
- Description
-
Port Vendres; view looking across water to tall buildings, which are reflected in the water, houses on a hill behind. 1926-27
Watercolour
- Production date
- 1926-1927
- Dimensions
-
Height: 278 millimetres
-
Width: 377 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Attached to back of mount are several exhibition labels.
There are three labels relating to Jas. McClure & Son, a fine art dealers based in Glasgow. The first of these has just "McClure" stamped on it, and there is a separate label below with the number "1258". The second McClure label has the dealer's full details as a header; typewritten text reads: " "Port Vendres"/ by/ C.R. MacKintosh/ 2, Hans Studios/ 43a, Glebe Place, / London, S.W.3/ Belonging to :-/ Prof. Schwabe, Slade School of Art, London."
The third McClure label has the details of a different work by Mackintosh, also owned by Prof. Schwabe; "Old House, Lyme Regis/ from a Sketch Book of/ C.R. Mackintosh/ [same address as above]." See BM 1981,1212.32.
The other exhibition labels are for Sheffield City Art Galleries (label is entirely blank) and Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, which details that the watercolour was cat. no. 209 in the 1978 exhibition "Mackintosh Watercolours".
Finally there is also a label of James Bourlet & Sons, Ltd., fine art packers and frame makers.
The following label was written by Kim Sloan for Places of the Mind, 2017:
The architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh lived in the south of France for five years from 1923. He felt he had not received proper recognition for his architectural work and turned to painting watercolour landscapes instead. He wintered in Port Vendres, a small port near the Spanish border where the patterns in the hills, buildings and harbour reflections fed his sense of design. Fascinated by the contrast between architecture and nature, he always worked out of doors, sometimes taking two to three weeks to complete a watercolour.
See also K. Sloan, 'The search for a sense of place', in K. Sloan (ed.), Places of the Mind: British watercolour landscapes 1850-1950, (London, 2017), pp. 8-23.
Roger Billcliffe, Mackintosh Watercolours, p.45, reproduced p.138
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1933, Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, 'Mackintosh Memorial Exhibition'
1978, Glasgow, Kelvingrove, 'Mackintosh Watercolours', no. 209
1984, BM, 'Master Drawings & Watercolours', no. 204
1986 Aug-Oct, Edinburgh, Scottish Royal Academy, 'Mackintosh', no. 53
1990 Apr-Aug, BM, 'Treasures of P&D' (no cat.)
1996 May-Sept, Glasgow, McLellan Galleries, 'Mackintosh', (ex cat.)
2005/6 Nov-Feb, Edinburgh, Scottish NG of Modern Art, 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh in France'
2017 23 Feb-27 Aug, London, BM, G90, Places of the Mind: British Landscape watercolours 1850-1950
- Acquisition date
- 1981
- Acquisition notes
- A letter from Sir Harry Jefferson Barnes to Frances Carey dated 22/9/81 states that Randolph Schwabe lent all of the drawings acquired through Sir Harry and Lady Jefferson Barnes to the 1933 memorial exhibition.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1981,1212.17