“The Wassail”
This gesso wall frieze is called “The Wassail” and was made in 1900 by the Art Nouveau Scottish artist and architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. In this piece, the gesso was painted on loose-woven hessian fabric over a wooden frame that was embellished with string, steel pins, beads, and tin leaf.
It was made for The Ladies’ Luncheon Room at Miss Cranston’s Ingram Street Tearooms in Glasgow, Scotland. Mackintosh remodeled a series of tearooms for Miss Cranston in the beginning of the 20th century. This piece was made in three sections and hung in the tearoom along with its companion piece, “The May Queen”, which was created by Margaret Macdonald, Mackintosh’s wife whom he married that same year.
This wall frieze depicts wassailing which began as a pagan fertility ceremony practiced ensuring a good crop and which continued on in the English and European customs, generally around the Christmas holiday. Mackintosh decorated this piece with pagan symbols including an all-seeing eye and mistletoe.
“The Wassail” is currently on display at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland.
For more on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
