£5,292
Auction: 11 October 2023 at 11:00 BST
watercolour, later framed
Provenance: Acquired by William Meldrum, after the Memorial Exhibition 1933
and by descent to his son, James Meldrum
Given to The Glasgow Art Club by Eva Meldrum, widow of James Meldrum, 1984
Note: Colour began making a subtle, delicate appearance after a visit to Lindisfarne, Holy Island in 1901. ‘Harebells’ is a decorative and stylised piece, unusually created entirely in watercolour with no traces of the assured and technical pencil lines that one associates with his botanic studies. Nonetheless, each brushstroke is considered and placed with intent above spontaneity.
This sketch, and the other works by Mackintosh in this sale, belonged to James Meldrum, having come from the collection of his father William Meldrum, Mackintosh’s friend and fellow student at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1880s. James Meldrum notably staged the 1933 Memorial Exhibition of Mackintosh’s work in the MacLellan Galleries on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, along with his friend William Davidson. After James’ death, his widow Eva gifted the vast body of the William Meldrum Collection to the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. The series of works offered here were gifted to the Glasgow Art Club in the 1980s and now appear on the open market for the first time.