Born in 1868, Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer and artist, a leading figure of the Glasgow School and British Art Nouveau. Working across architecture, furniture, graphic design and the decorative arts, he developed a distinctive language combining strong geometry, natural motifs, Japanese influences and the Arts and Crafts tradition.

Together with Margaret Macdonald, Frances Macdonald and Herbert MacNair, he formed The Four, helping to shape the Glasgow Style. His major projects include the Glasgow School of Art, the Willow Tea Rooms and the Hill House in Helensburgh. His furniture, with its elongated proportions, geometric structures and refined decorative details, anticipated aspects of modernism and some of the formal ideas that would later emerge in Art Deco.