Description
Oil on board
Dimensions
24cm x 19cm (9.5in x 7.5in)
Footnote
Provenance: The Robertson Collection
Exhibited: Arts Council - Scottish Committee, J.D.Fergusson Memorial Exhibition, 1961/62, no.20
Note: The label is inscribed 'To Anne & Ian from Fergus & Meg with love Nov. 1962'
France played a key role in Fergusson's life, and became a second artistic home. Fergusson was drawn to Paris, where the café society offered him endless amusement and subject matter, as he tried to capture the effects of each passing, stylish moment in small-scale works such as At a Café Table.
The materiality of the paint on the board just adds to the atmosphere of this charming scene, demonstrating the fashionable dress and engaging social activity that surrounded the artist. As Fergusson himself noted in Paris, "something new had started and I was very much intrigued. But there was no language for it that made sense in Edinburgh or London."