Lot 84
JOHN DUNCAN FERGUSSON R.B.A. (SCOTTISH 1874-1961) §
WOMAN ON A BALCONY (ANNE ESTELLE RICE)
£2,016
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Day Sale | Lots 1-102 | Thursday 05 December from 2pm
Description
Charcoal on brown paper
Dimensions
33.5cm x 26cm (13.25in x 10.25in)
Provenance
Christie's Edinburgh, The Scottish Sale, 31st October 2002, lot 143;
Private Collection, Scotland.
Footnote
2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Duncan Fergusson in Leith, near Edinburgh. He is arguably best known as one of the four ‘Scottish Colourists’, along with F. C. B. Cadell, G. L. Hunter and S. J. Peploe, who are revered as the masters of modern Scottish art. We are delighted to continue the celebration of this landmark year that we began in our sale on 6 June 2024.
Fergusson’s advice to would-be artists was ‘always carry a small…sketch-book, a very soft pencil and make quick rough sketches of anything around you; never correct a sketch, just make another; don’t try to make a good drawing, you won’t – or by accident, you may! Just keep at it, you are training your eye to see and your hand to respond.’ (quoted by Margaret Morris in ed. Jean Geddes, Café Drawings in Edwardian Paris from the Sketch-books of J. D. Fergusson 1874-1961, Blackie, Glasgow, 1974, p.5)
Indeed, Fergusson followed his own advice, usually had a sketchbook about his person and made sketching and drawing the foundation of his practice. The sketchbook presented here is of his favourite style (with navy covers) and size (slightly narrower than approximately A5) and could easily be tucked into a jacket pocket alongside a conté crayon or two. It could be retrieved as a scene or subject caught his eye and provided fruitful occupation whilst out and about, particularly whilst enjoying the cafés and parks of Paris.
The contents of the sketchbook provide an intimate and direct glimpse into the artist’s creative process, as – with varying degrees of finish or suggestion – he captured on its pages subjects from male and female heads to standing figures, animals and a still life. Details such as hats, beards, jewellery and spectacles are enjoyed, whilst its back pages provided a useful repository for information, including a list of paintings and sculptures accompanied by their prices.
Fergusson’s surety of line and enjoyment of the human figure can be seen in individual drawings such as Seated Man, in which the subject’s form is speedily realised in hatching and The Broad-Brimmed Hat, where the technique is this time used to emphasise the chic titular headgear of his sitter. The artist’s frank appreciation of the female form is clear in the curvaceous line of Seated Nude and Nude on a Balcony. Nude, Tazza and Fruit can be read as a metropolitan Eve, offering up an apple taken from the still life arrangement before the female model. It has references to Fergusson’s celebrated paintings of nudes made in pre-World War One Paris, showing the importance of the artist’s journey from page to canvas which underlay much of his work.
