Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald were both members of The Four, a quartet from Glasgow that included Margaret’s sister Frances and her husband James Herbert MacNair. The Four met at the Glasgow School of Art when they studied there at the end of the 19th century. The men were architecture students who incorporated Art Nouveau into their designs, leading to a distinctive Glasgow Style. The Mackintoshes lived in a house at 6 Florentine Terrace, in the Hillhead neighborhood, close to the current location of the Hunterian Art Gallery.
Ironically, many buildings including the Mackintosh home were demolished to make way for new buildings of the University of Glasgow, which runs the Hunterian. When 6 Florentine Terrace was demolished in the 1960s, the legacy of the late Mackintoshes was already well-established, so it was decided that the furnishings of most of the house would be preserved and documented as best as possible.
Thanks to this foresight, the Hunterian was able to recreate several of the rooms of their house. The restored dining room, bedroom, hall, and other spaces feature the original furniture and decorations of the Mackintoshes along with some reproductions for lost items. The Mackintosh House opened as a part of the Hunterian Gallery in 1981, allowing visitors to get a sense of the life of these famous Glasgow artists.
