The painting, which far outstripped its high estimate of £30,000, is titled Road through the Rocks. It was the top lot at the Edinburgh saleroom’s Scottish Paintings and Sculpture sale attracting a steady stream of bidding particularly from a number of UK and international phone bidders as well as online bidding.
According to the Art Sales Index it is a record for a painting by the Scottish architect, though still falls short of the $470,000 price achieved for one of his ‘white bedroom’ chairs at Sotheby’s New York earlier this month.
It is one of few such works that the Scottish architect produced. “Mackintosh drew throughout his life but his watercolours are rare,” said Lyon & Turnbull painting specialist Nick Curnow.
Many such works date to his later life when he had moved away from the design vocabulary which defined his earlier drawings. Road… was completed c.1925 following his move to the south of France and was included in the 1933 memorial exhibition dedicated to him and his wife Margaret. It was later in the extensive collection of Professor Thomas Haworth, who also published widely on the artist.
Curnow adds: “In this watercolour, Mackintosh turns his unique approach to the countryside, where the interaction between the natural and man-made intrigued him”.
