* JOHN DUNCAN FERGUSSON RBA (SCOTTISH 1874 - 1961)
HAPPY NUDE SEATED

watercolour on paper, titled label verso
mounted, framed and under glass
Exhibition label verso: J D Fergusson, One-Man Exhibition 17 June - 13 July 1972 (Compass Gallery, Glasgow).

image size 18cm x 15cm, overall size 38cm x 34cm

Note: John Duncan Fergusson was born in 1874 in Leith and had his first studio in Edinburgh around 1894. He was elected Member of Royal Society of British Artists in 1903 and two years later had his first One Man show in London at the Baillie Gallery. During 1905 and 1906 he visited Paris Plage, Dieppe and Le Touquet and painted with Peploe and Ann Estelle Rice. He settled in Paris in 1907 and taught at the Academie de la Palette, meeting the artist Segonzac. In 1911 he exhibited at the Salon des Independants and, together with Middleton Murry and Kathleen Mansefield, he launched and became Arts Editor of the influential periodical ‘Rhythm’ which published works by Picasso, Gaudier Brzeska and Derain. In 1913 Fergusson exhibited in the Post Impressionist and Futurist Exhibition at the Dore Gallery, London. That year in Paris he also met the choreographer and dancer Margaret Morris who later became his wife. They lived in Antibes until the outbreak of war and then returned to London. Fergusson was a war artist with the Royal Navy and in 1918 exhibited his works at Connell Gallery, London. He did a painting tour of the Scottish Islands in 1922 – 23, showed in 1925 at Leicester Galleries, London with Peploe, Hunter and Cadell. In 1939 when war broke out Fergusson and Morris settled in Glasgow and were founders of the New Art Club and the New Scottish Group of Independent Painters. He was made Honorary LL.D Glasgow University in1950. Fergusson is regarded by many as the most adventurous of the four Scottish Colourists.