SCOTTISH PAINTINGS & SCULPTURE

A Scottish Colourist at 150: John Duncan Fergusson

Nick Curnow

13 May 2024

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.

Scottish Paintings & Sculpture ft. J.D. Fergusson at 150

Explore our forthcoming 06 June flagship auction taking place live in Edinburgh & online.

VIEW THE AUCTION

Watch | A Scottish Colourist at 150

Join specialists Nick Curnow and Alice Strang as they discuss the life and works of the Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson, marking the 150th anniversary of the artist's birth.

Fergusson has the most international reputation of the group, not least due to key periods spent living in Paris before World War One and during the 1930s, as well as in London between 1914 and 1929. He had three solo exhibitions in America during the 1920s.

Fergusson was the only sculptor amongst the Colourists and made and exhibited sculptures for over 35 years. His practice also embraced the performing arts, with designs for costumes and theatre sets for the productions of his eventual wife, the dance pioneer Margaret Morris. As the longest-lived of the quartet, Fergusson also played an important role in the Scottish art world after World War Two, from a base in Glasgow.

TORSE DE FEMME (TORSO OF A WOMAN) 1918 (CAST 1991)

Torse de Femme embodies key themes in Fergusson’s sculptural practice, namely the appreciation of an idealised, cropped female form and a sleek modernism, based on curves and planes, with particular attention paid to the breasts, bottom and the base of the spine. It pays testament to the sculptors with whose work he would have been familiar in pre-war Paris, such as Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Archipenko and Jacob Epstein. Its angularity also speaks to Vorticism, whose members Wyndham Lewis, Christopher Nevinson and Edward Wadsworth Fergusson knew through the Margaret Morris Club that Morris ran alongside her dance school and theatre in London.

Numbered 10/10, bronze with green patina

£6,000 - £8,000 + fees

VIEW THE LOT

Fergusson has a special significance for Lyon & Turnbull, not least because his first studio was at 16 Picardy Place in Edinburgh, four minutes’ walk from our New Town saleroom. Furthermore, our Associate Director, Alice Strang, curated the 2013-14 National Galleries of Scotland touring retrospective of his work and edited the accompanying publication. Lyon & Turnbull celebrated this milestone year with a touring exhibition of Fergusson’s paintings and sculpture, in partnership with the Fleming Collection and held in our London and Glasgow galleries this Spring. Culture Perth & Kinross, the custodians of the single most important public collection of Fergusson’s work, has also recently opened a new space dedicated to his achievements and those of Morris, in Perth Art Gallery.

ROSE IN THE HAIR, 1908

Rose in the Hair of 1908 is a tour de force example of how Fergusson’s practice flourished in the context of the very birth of modern art, following his move from Edinburgh to Paris. Indeed, his reputation is based on the seven years he spent in the French capital between 1907 and 1913, where he occupied a unique position amongst British artists within the avant-garde art scene.

Signed, titled, inscribed and dated verso, oil on board

£100,000 - £150,000

VIEW THE LOT

We are delighted to continue the celebration of this remarkable artist by offering the following group of works on paper, including drawings, watercolours and one of Fergusson’s sketchbooks, to the market; selected paintings and sculptures follow in the Evening Sale.

BOULEVARD EDGAR QUINET

Boulevard Edgar Quinet comes from of a series of vibrant Parisian street scenes which Fergusson began shortly after arriving in the French capital. His excitement about his new surroundings is clear, as he revelled in the depiction of the city’s architecture and citizens. His brushwork became bolder and his palette brighter in deftly captured scenes of daily life.

Signed, inscribed and dated ‘Paris 1909’ verso, oil on board

£40,000 - £60,000 + fees

VIEW THE LOT

Fergusson was an inveterate sketcher and skilled draughtsman. He gained immense pleasure from drawing café clientele, Morris’s pupils and other subjects, indoors and en plein air. As seen in the following lots, his sitters ranged from female nudes and dancers, to beautiful women captured wearing attractive hats and socialising. The addition of watercolour brought colour and brushstrokes into play, whilst the fully realised The Plage and Cliffs, Pourville brings a touch of Art Deco to a cliffside scene.

THE PLAGE AND CLIFFS, POURVILLE

The entry for this work in the 1961 exhibition catalogue states that it is 'signed, dated and inscribed on reverse 'J. D. Fergusson 1926 "The plage and cliffs'". An inscription to label verso also suggests a date of 1926.

Charcoal and watercolour

£4,000 - £6,000 + fees

VIEW THE LOT

We are grateful to Amy Waugh, Culture Perth & Kinross, for her help with our research.

Further June 2024 Highlights

LOT 158

BLONDE IN THE SOUTH

£60,000 - £80,000 + fees

LOT 159

MONTGERON

£20,000 - £30,000 + fees

LOT 160

THE ARTIST'S SISTER

£10,000 - £15,000 + fees

LOT 157

GOAT, 1921 (CAST 1991)

£3,000 - £5,000 + fees

LOT 89

SELF-PORTRAIT (WITHIN A SKETCHBOOK CONTAINING APPROXIMATELY 55 PENCIL DRAWINGS)

£5,000 - £7,000 + fees

LOT 80

DANCER

£1,500 - £2,000 + fees

06 JUNE 2024 AT 14:00 BST

Scottish Paintings & Sculpture

VIEW THE AUCTION

DEPARTMENTS

Scottish Art

Lyon & Turnbull is the market leader in the selling of Scottish art. We present two flagship art auctions per year live from our historic headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland to an international audience online.

LEARN MORE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR