Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), Scotland's most famous architect, was part of a movement of artists and designers which developed at the end of the 19th century called "the Glasgow School". A student of Glasgow School of Art, his masterpiece is its current home, built in two phases, 1896-99 and 1907-09.
His influences were largely Art Nouveau and traditional Scottish forms, creating a style which at the time was more celebrated in continental Europe than in his native Glasgow. Most Victorians preferred more formal, classical design and ornament.
In the practice of Honeyman and Keppie from 1889 to 1913, first as assistant then as a partner; he contributed to the design of a number of buildings (for example the Glasgow Herald Building, now the Lighthouse gallery, and Martyrs School) until he developed a reputation and client base which allowed him to fully express his artistic talents. Cranston's tea rooms (one can still take tea in the Willow Tea Rooms' Salon de Luxe), Hill House in Helensburgh, Scotland Street School and Queens Cross Church are from this highly creative period. The last of these is home to the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society. His own house, designed with his artist wife Margaret Macdonald, is recreated at the Hunterian Gallery at the University of Glasgow. Mackintosh left Glasgow in 1913 and spent most of the rest of his life painting in London and the south of France.