8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Lost love story behind Glasgow's beautiful tea room
The Salon de Luxe, the jewel of the National Trust for Scotland's Mackintosh at the Willow Tearooms on Sauchiehall Street, will be the focus of a romantic talk led by cultural historian Dr Robyne Calvert on July 6.
The event explores how love, poetry, and symbolism shaped the design of the iconic room created by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.
(Image: Supplied)
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Oliver Braid, creative learning manager at Mackintosh at the Willow, said: "Visitors always fall in love with the Salon de Luxe, its bewitching details and important links to Scottish women's history.
"Margaret Macdonald's work is central to the room's design, with interest in her work significantly growing in recent years.
"This talk will help us understand how Mackintosh and Macdonald took inspiration from another creative and translated this into the design of our unique space, here at Mackintosh at the Willow on Sauchiehall Street.
"The event will help to bring people back to Sauchiehall Street as it undergoes major developments into an area of significant culture and heritage for the city of Glasgow, and to help us think more about the city as it celebrates its 850th anniversary."
Dr Calvert will explore how the Mackintoshes drew inspiration from the Willowwood sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
The poems influenced not only the mood of the space but also Margaret Macdonald's stunning gesso panel, which forms a focal point of the room.
(Image: Supplied)
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Dr Calvert said: "For the interior of this dazzling room, Mackintosh enlisted the aid of his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh.
"Specifically, Macdonald crafted a gesso panel for this room, arguably amongst her most beautiful, titled after the first line in the third sonnet of Rossetti's cycle of four, O Ye, All Ye That Walk In Willowwood.
"The Salon de Luxe is a quintessential example of how the Mackintoshes engaged with Symbolist practices in the creation of a gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art.
"The panel may be viewed as a narrative key to understanding the space's meaning."
The talk is part of a wider programme of events leading up to 2028, which will mark the 100th anniversary of Mackintosh's death, the centenary of women gaining equal franchise in Scotland, and the 200th anniversary of Rossetti's birth.
Tickets for the romantic event are priced at £7 and can be booked via Eventbrite.
