Lot 151
JOHN DUNCAN FERGUSSON R.B.A. (SCOTTISH 1864-1961) §
THE PINK TENTS, ROYAN
Estimate: £30,000 - £50,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 103-196 | Thursday 05 December from 6pm
Description
Signed, inscribed and dated 1907 on the reverse, further inscribed with the title and signed in the artist's hand verso, oil on board
Dimensions
26cm x 35cm (10.25in x 13.75in)
Provenance
Wellington Fine Art, Glasgow from where acquired by the father of the present owner
Footnote
The Pink Tents, Royan reveals the dramatic development of John Duncan Fergusson’s practice following his move from Edinburgh to Paris in 1907. Its brilliant colour, bold simplification of form and bravura technique show how he responded to and evolved in his own manner, the very latest developments in the work of artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and André Derain.
Throughout his career, Fergusson combined working in a studio with more spontaneous sketching and painting whilst outdoors. In the Scottish capital he had become a familiar figure in Princes Street Gardens, using oil paint to capture scenes quickly on small panels, which demonstrated a familiarity with the French Impressionists, Eugène Boudin and James McNeill Whistler.
Summers spent painting in France with his friend and fellow Scottish Colourist, S. J. Peploe from 1904 resulted in en plein air works characterised by a subtle palette, fluent handling and an emphasis on natural light. This can be seen in Grey Day, Paris-Plage of c.1906 (Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow, acc.no.3370) and Berneval, the Cliff (Kirkcaldy Art Galleries, acc.no.KIRMG:569). They also show how Fergusson’s eye was drawn to the formal possibilities of bathing tents, which preserved one’s modesty when changing in and out of swim wear, and which were popular during the Edwardian period.
Fergusson settled in Paris in 1907. The Pink Tents, Royan resulted from a trip to the seaside resort on the west coast of France two years later. Fergusson was now working with a new kind of confidence, using thick, obvious brushstrokes laden with rich colours to evoke the texture of branches and fabric and to create rhythm throughout the asymmetrical composition. Black outlines delineate form and volume is flattened with a resulting emphasis on silhouette and a heightened sense of painterly design.
Unsurprisingly, this painting dates from a key year in Fergusson’s career. In 1909 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale for the first time and moved to the inspiring environment of a new light and orderly studio, at 83 rue Notre Dame des Champs in the French capital. Moreover, his involvement with the heady creativity of pre-World War One Paris was recognised by his election to the avant-garde Salon d’Automne that year.
Such was the inspiration that Fergusson found in Royan that he was to return to there in 1910, accompanied by his partner, the American artist Anne Estelle Rice and by Peploe.
