A miniature stylised watercolour of the Virgin holding the infant Christ in encircling arms; the heads of both figures encircled with a gold halo; with various decorative patterned areas; initials, lower right.

In the 1890s the artist and craftswoman Margaret Macdonald began a collaboration with her sister Frances to create commissioned work including illustrations and paintings. Margaret married the Glaswegian architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1900, and their partnership produced several important interior design schemes, for which she designed decorative panels, often highly accomplished works in gesso, set with shell and glass beads. Their oeuvre, characterised by sinuous lines and elegant angles, reflects the art nouveau movement evident in the attenuated forms of this small watercolour of the Madonna and Child. It is one of the last known works by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, whose career was cut short by poor health.