Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in 1868, in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art and began working as an architect for Honeyman & Keppie. His modern designs are recognizable by their boldness and reduced lines.
He also favored high backed chairs as with the Argyle chair which has a high back of four wooden pieces connected by an oval head piece. With the Argyle chair he was still using floral motifs but later moved on to a style characterized by geometric severity and a frequent use of right angles. This can be seen in the Willow chair, which rests on a box and who's curved back has a pattern of rectangles and parallel lines. He also had important architectural commissions such as a new building for his old university, the Glasgow School of Art. He designed all of the furniture and fittings in this building also.
He began to work in interior design and his creations were nothing short of integrated works of art. Although he died in 1928, his designs have been preserved by the Italian company Cassina, who continues to reproduces his furniture designs today.