Haus eines Kunstfreundes: Frontispiece to the portfolio

Frontispiece to the portfolio ; In 1902, the Darmstadt publisher Alexander Koch issued a series of three large-format portfolios after an editorial competition entitled Haus eines Kunstfreundes (House of an Art Lover), to be designed in the "new style," an alternative to Art Nouveau. These portfolios became famous because of the artists involved, especially Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald. In fact the two had been eliminated from the competition for formal reasons, but their designs were published because the quality was so high, along with the work of the two winners, Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott, a representative of the English Arts and Crafts movement, and Leopold Bauer, a pupil of Otto Wagner.