I
have already posted information about some of the Colourists, Cadell
and Hunter, and since there are only four of them I thought it would be
nice to do a bit on the others too, just to complete the set. So
first up is Fergusson who I suppose could be called the main
inspiration behind this style. Some time over the next couple of days I
shall post something about Peploe, the fourth and final painter from
this particular little set. I have to admit this biography is not my own
work, I was looking around the internet and came across this, it seems
to be as good if not better than any thing I could do so I thought I may
as well post it as it is, and it does include a source list at the
bottom which is very useful. So here he is then……………………..Fergusson.
Biography: John Duncan Fergusson
JD
Fergusson was perhaps the most versatile and experimental of the
Scottish Colourists his love of vibrant colour and depiction of the
human form leaving a lasting impression on the viewer. He was an
excellent draughtsman who was able to adapt the various new influences,
which came over from Paris, making them into something personal and unique.
Born in Edinburgh
in 1874 he was the eldest of four children. His family, successful wine
merchants originally came from near Pitlochry, Perthshire. His passion
for art began in the mid 1880s and although he had been accepted by the Trustees Academy,
(the forerunner to Edinburgh College of Art), he gave up his formal
training as he found it too rigid and limiting. The classes involved
studying from the vast array of classical plaster casts but Fergusson
was keen to learn directly from life and showing characteristic
independence of mind, he taught himself.
From early in his career, travel was to play an important part of his artistic development, he went to Spain and Morrocco but it was France, and his experience of French art, which was most influential. His first trip to Paris
took place around 1897 where he drew inspiration from French artists
such as Edouard Manet and Claude Monet, and later the post impressionist
artists known as the Fauves, but he was also a great admirer of the
work of the American artist James Abbot McNeil Whistler. He met Samuel
Peploe around 1900 and with their shared love of French painting they
became immediate friends. The two made regular trips to the coastal
resorts of Normandy and Brittany in North West France and following a
successful London exhibition in 1905 Fergusson made plans to move to
Paris permanently, and did so two years later. Unlike his fellow
Colourists, Fergusson’s interest in depicting nude forms did not
diminish over the course of his career and in 1913 he meet the woman who
became so influential in his future work, dancer Margaret Morris. Her
dynamic personality and sensuous physicality captivated Fergusson.
Despite her undoubted importance as Fergusson’s model, this was
secondary to the benefit of a mutually beneficial creative partnership.
Later that same year Fergusson set off for a sunnier climate than Paris
and found it in the South of France, spending the summer with Peploe in
Cassis. Although Margaret Morris was based with her dance school in London,
she was to make regular visits to the South of France. At the outbreak
of the Second World War their idyllic life was shattered and Fergusson
returned to the UK, to base himself near Margaret in London. The 1920s were successful for Fergusson; he held his first one-man show in Scotland followed by the first of only three shows during their lifetimes with fellow Colourists Peploe, Hunter and Cadell in London in 1923. He returned to Paris in 1925 and settled there until the outbreak of the Second World War. On his return to Scotland
he became actively involved with the younger Scottish artists forming
the New Scottish Art Group in 1942 and he completed his book, Modern
Scottish Painting in 1943.
He outlived his fellow colourists by some years and lived modestly, with Margaret Morris, in Glasgow until his death in 1961.
Perth Art - JD Fergusson Scottish Colourist, Central Scotland
The
Fergusson Gallery is the definitive site to see the largest collection
of work by Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson under one roof.
Housed in the fine circular gallery setting of Perth's old waterworks which dates from 1832, the Fergusson Gallery opened in 1992
Text
source: The Dictionary of Scottish Painters (Haslby & Harris) and
Living Paint, a catalogue and biography published by the Fergusson
Gallery (Kirsten Simist)
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