Born in Glasgow, architect, designer and artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh rose to high regard across Europe. This major new study of his life and work reassesses Mackintosh"s contributions to architecture and design - and the little-known landscape painting that he retired to in his last years, when he could no longer stand the cool reception that his work received in Britain. As students, Mackintosh and his friend Herbert MacNair met the Macdonald sisters, forming a quartet known by their contemporaries as "the spook school" for their use of abstracted female figures and metamorphic lines. The British establishment was disdainful of their work, owing to the clear influence of continental "art noveau" upon Rennie and his collaborators. Only with the help of a small number of patrons would Mackintosh realize his best-known designs - including the new Glasgow School of Art ("The Mackintosh Building"). He also designed a series of tea room interiors and several private houses (most notably Windyhill and The Hill House), developing an uncompromising style known as "total design" - of interiors and furniture as well as exteriors and planning, incorporating a sophisticated use of both natural and artificial light.