Décor de la salle à manger (House for an art lover, Glasgow) 1901

Charles Rennie Mackintosh made this decorative panel for a dining room, although it’s not clear exactly when. The colours are muted: pinkish roses against a pale white field, with a background of watery blue. I think what’s interesting here is how flat it is, like a poster, and yet it has such a gentle quality, and there is this beautiful graphic element. Look how the figures are stylized. Are they meant to be sisters? Lovers? And these soft, slightly droopy roses surrounding them give it an Art Nouveau feel, with these long flowing lines trailing down. The texture is really important, isn’t it? It’s not just a smooth surface; there’s a kind of chalky, almost granular quality, as though it has been printed or frescoed. It reminds me a little of Gustav Klimt, in terms of its decorative quality and the way it flattens the figures, but Mackintosh has a quiet, almost domestic feel which is all of his own.