Works

Information about the work and context of creation

Frances was fascinated by depicting the female form and women’s experience. Her work is enigmatic, often opaque or elusive and open to multiple interpretations, as Symbolist thought encouraged, but it has been suggested that this watercolour represents her most direct comment on female sexuality. While recurring motifs such as bows or flowers might usually be positioned to obscure the figure, to preserve a figure’s modesty, here the bows placed at the woman’s breasts, waist and hips seem to draw attention to the woman’s exposed body. The bow is associated with femininity, adornment and even innocence, but  that has slipped back to expose a tension with a starker, this is undercut by the suggestion of a more intense, adult reality.  
Bows dates from around 1910-11 after Frances and her husband returned to Glasgow and may have been painted as part of preparations for the couple’s joint exhibition at the Baillie Gallery, London in 1911. The female figure is at the heart of the composition, placed within interlocking organic shapes, the lower of which loosely resembles a rose. The bows of the title are strewn like butterflies across the image, although they follow the decorative curve of the rose form as though strung on a cord. 
As a body of work, her haunting and highly original watercolours represent a remarkable contribution to European Symbolism and a powerful feminist voice within Scottish art.  
This 34.60 x 30.50 cm painting was made with pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of body color and with scratching out on vellum. Nowadays it is in storage at Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art (Modern One). 
Frances Macdonald was part of a group of women who were the first girls allowed to enroll in the Glasgow School of Art. These women, who became known as The Glasgow Girls, transformed decorative and interior design with their new ‘Glasgow Style.’ The work of Mackintosh and The Glasgow Girls were inspired by Celtic imagery, literature, symbolism and folklore. The term ‘Glasgow Girls’ was coined by William Buchanan in an essay he contributed to the catalogue for a Glasgow Boys exhibition held in 1968.  Though he was using this title to show that these artists were the female equivalents of their well-known male counterparts, it does not reflect the personal and professional complexity of this group.  They pursued different styles and worked in a range of artforms.  Some formed discrete groups while others chose to work alone. Even residence in Glasgow was not a unifying factor as many lived and worked elsewhere in Scotland.  
 
They were connected, however, through shared experiences and their continued efforts to support one another.  Artists who are understood to be ‘Glasgow Girls’ include Bessie MacNicol, Jessie Marion King, Margaret and Frances Macdonald, Helen Paxton Brown, Stansmore Dean and Annie French.  
 
In addition to the critical recognition they received from exhibitions, objects that they designed were purchased for use or display in domestic settings and public spaces such as tea rooms.  

Indications

Art,  Interior Design, Art School.

Documents