Before reaching the reconstruction of the interior of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Mcdonald’s Glasgow house at the Hunterian Art Gallery there are some other Mackintosh exhibits to see.

Model of unbuilt house. (This bears many similarities to Hill House in Helensburgh):-

Candlesticks designedby Charles Rennie Mackintosh:-

Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed cutlery:-

book covers. Mackintosh designed many of these for the publisher Blackie:-

Poster and Stair Hanging:-

Windows and hangings:-

Tapestry:-

Chandelier, tapestry and fireplace:-

Pottery collections:-

Glassware:-

This week I visited Dundee’s McManus Art Gallery and Museum to see the exhibition A Weather Eye. I got to it late. It finishes on Sunday 11/5/25: tomorrow!

Each painting was accompanied on its information board by a Scots word to do with weather or the image depicted.

The quality and interest of course varied.

My highlights were:-

Island by James Howie; accompanied by the word ‘loom’.

Alec Grieve’s Sunset on the Tay; ‘gloamin’.

Storm at Sea Remembered by Jon Schueler; ‘doister’.

The Tay Road Bridge by James McIntosh Patrick; ‘braw’.

Stanley Cursiter’s Rain on Princes Street; ‘evendoon’.

The above were all available to look at on the website Art UK.

The one below wasn’t; so here’s my photo of it.

William Cadenhead’s New Snow, Catlaw; ‘owerblaw’.

Coendersborg is a country estate in the village of Nuis in the Dutch province of Groningen.

Estate house:-

The hall:-

Painting in above photo:-

Fireplace in another room:-

Latin motto on a wall:-

Painting of house:-

Wall plaque (which looks like a design by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, wife to Charles Rennie Mackintosh):-

Upper Level:-

Fireplace, upper level:-

Seating, upper level:-

Among other exhibits there are of course many prieces by Hepworth herself at The Hepworth Wakefield.

These are typical Hepworth sculpted forms:-

To left and centre; Two Forms and Three Oblique Forms:-

To right above; Three Hemispheres:-

Maquette for Sculpture for Waterloo Bridge:-

Winged Figure:-

We had an overnight stop at Wakefield on the way back up from Bath so that we could go to The Hepworth Wakefield. It was built in commemoration of artist/sculptor Barbara Hepworth who was born in the town. As well as many of her works it now houses the municipal art collection started in 1923.

The building stands by the River Calder and was designed by British architect David Chipperfield.

From over River Calder:-

From walkway over the river:-

Entrance and rear:-

I took a video of the weir from the main road bridge:-

During the Great War Lavery was commissioned as a war artist. Several of his war paintings are on display at the Lavery on Location Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery.

Mine-Laying Submarines Harwich 1917:-

Hendon 1917. Hendon was a Royal Flying Corps training base. I really liked this as I’m a sucker for biplanes:-

More sombrely this is The Cemetery, Étaples:-

Daylight Raid from my Studio:-

A Coast Defence. An 18-Pounder Anti-Aircraft Gun, Tyneside:-

Lavery was almost alone in portraying those who became casualties. Wounded, London:-

More of Lavery’s works can be seen on the Ulster Museum’s website, here.

Lavery made his name when he was commissioned to paint the State Visit of Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition 1888. For this he had individual sittings for the privileged invitees so that he could then incorporate accurate portarits of them into his final composition.

He painted many pictures of the International Exhibition including this one of the main building. Along with many other depictions of various International or National Exhibitions, plus the Festival of Britain, I have a copy of this hanging on my study wall:-

Lavery also painted A View from the Canal, Kelvingrove, showing one of the gondolas which plied the waters of the River Kelvin as an amusement attraction:-

And this one of the exhibit The Blue Hungarians:-

One of the features of the international Exhibition was an array of restaurants and café including The Dutch Cocoa House (as depicted by Lavery below) which dispensed Van Houten products.

The above for some reason reminds me of both Edwin Hopper’s Nighthawks and Edgar Degas’s The Absinthe Drinker.

Lavery exhibited this painting in the Art Gallery at the International Exhibition. Dawn after the Battle of Langside. Mary, Queen of Scots in the aftermath of the battle:-

For some reason the title the Scottish National Gallery has given to its exhibition featuring the painter John Lavery is “An Irish Impressionist.”

I had always considered Lavery to be a Scottish painter, even if he was born in Ireland. He moved to Scotland as a child and started his career in Glasgow.

The Exhibition is on till 27^th October.

Lavery’s early work resembles paintings by The Glasgow Boys. This is The Intruders, very reminiscent of a painting by James Guthrie:-

His style soon developed as he took to painting more impressionistic works such as these two of the Bridge at Grès (Grez-sur-Loing):-

Then we have Windy Day:-

and The Harbour of St Jean de Luz:-

There are two versions of On The Loing in the exhibition. This one was a study for the larger painting exhibited beside it.