Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Princess is an encaustic piece inspired by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. It was part of the 100 Women Artists in Art History show, organized by the indomitable Alicia Campos. Many women in art history have been overlooked and have not received the attention of their male counterparts. Alicia has gathered 100 contemporary female artists, each of whom interpreted in their own style a historical female artist’s work. 

Margaret Macdonald was a gifted and successful artist in Scotland at the turn of the century. She was born in 1864 in England and moved to Glasgow, Scotland with her family in 1890. She and her sister, Frances Macdonald, enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art.
Margaret was active in the 1890’s and early 1900’s and was a member of “The Glasgow Four”, which included her sister Frances, her future husband Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and her future bother-in-law, Herbert MacNair, both of whom the sisters met at the Glasgow School of Arts.

Margaret used a unique combination of techniques. She piped gesso lines and patterns into the canvas and embedded beads, threads, fabric and other materials in her pieces. She also worked in metalwork, embroidery, and watercolors. Much of her work was collaborative, primarily with her sister and her husband. At the time, Margaret’s process was a well-guarded secret. She made her own gesso and used materials in unusual and creative ways. While her husband’s career often overshadowed hers during their lifetime, Margaret’s innovative and creative style became one of the defining features of the Glasgow Style during the 1890s - 1900s and her work has been increasingly appreciated in recent years.

---