100 Objects from Century of the Child

Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald. Der Spiel-Raum der Kinder (Children’s playroom) from the folio Haus eines Kunstfreundes (House for an art lover). 1902

This playroom emphasized the notion, widely held in reform circles, that the cultivation of an artistic sensibility began at home. The use of stylized plant forms and color was a defining feature of the New Art in Glasgow of which Mackintosh and Macdonald were leading exponents. Such organic imagery was considered particularly appropriate for children, who were themselves often described as plants in a garden. Here, electric light fittings took the form of stylized trees, enhancing the sense of entering a fairy-tale world. The dreamlike scheme embodied the atmosphere, spiritual but not religious, in which artistic types aspired to raise their children.

Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild