CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH

Well I would never had thought I would be writing about Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 3 Corners of France. But like so many Britons he more or less retired to France after working as a designer/architect to enjoy a bit of painting in the sunshine. He was 55 when he arrived in the south of France, just for a holiday at Amelie les Bains (which we visited and purchased rather a lot of alcohol from a very attentive and enthusiastic cavist in the 'Caves du Rousillon' opposite the Mairie, well recommended). But later he and the wife decided to summer down on the coast at Collioure and they ended up staying for 4 years in various lodgings on the coast and in the hills.




Charles looking suitably arty in casual summer painter attire.





The Roussillon tourist board now publishes a 'Mackintosh Trail' but the leaflet is a bit vague about the artwork locations and the app is pretty useless when you don't have data roaming! Having got a copy of the leaflet in the Port Vendres tourist office I discovered we'd already managed to walk past 2 of the information panels without even noticing them. But Port Vendres harbour is a very busy place, not necessarily with people but more so with stuff; menu boards for cafes, boat trip signs, and all the usual traffic signage.

Sorry not the greatest of photographs. In this instance they haven't been able to place the sign at the correct angle, but as you can see it isn't very big so they are easily missed, the mackintosh inspired iron stands were a nice touch.

We had parked to the south of the town to have a pleasant dander to the centre, but most of the walk was taken up circumnavigating the commercial dock yard where we only spotted this one on the way back to the car. It is a lovely painting, there are a couple in this style with the watercolour 'flowing' in the foreground, dominating the backdrop of buildings. Some of his work was a lovely surprise for me, the fact that they were watercolour, the geometric rendering and the colour, but some of the countryside pieces are a little brutal although I guess a rock formation is exactly that!

 

Didn't see this one, it's in Amelie, but then we had tasted various different concoctions by then, I wonder if the colours are as vibrant as this reproduction?

 

It was sad to discover looking now on the internet that there has been for some years an art residency available for Scottish artists to come to Roussillon to paint but funding stopped (from 'Creative Scotlnd') last year.

 

There are another 10 or so reproductions of his work displayed along the Tet valley which we didn't visit on this little jaunt away from the Haut Languedoc so there's a new destination for next year.

 

Mackintosh died soon after these paintings were completed and his wife, Margaret, returned to Port Vendres to scatter his ashes in the harbour there. So unfortunately they had only enjoyed a rather short retirement in the sun, but he created some wonderful art. It would have been wonderful to have seen him standing by the shore in Port Vendres with paint, brushes and easel, look over his shoulder and watched the process.