John Duncan Fergusson, R.B.A.

T & R Annan, Glasgow;
Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow;
Private Collection

The painting appears to be in good original condition. The board is sound. Under UV light there is a small spot which fluoresces to a dark pigment to the lower right, which may be a small retouching to a chip of missing paint. Well presented in a hilt composition frame and ready to hang.
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Fergusson moved to Paris in 1907 and it was to be his home for the next six years. The city proved a rich source of inspiration; Fergusson was the most intellectual of the colourists and relished the stimulating debate among the artistic throng;  he also played a central role in the assembled Anglo-American community.

He took lodgings at 18 Boulevard Edgar Quinet in the heart of Montparnasse, which had superseded Montmartre as the artistic hub for the young avant-garde. Fergusson had received little formal training as an artist and some of his earliest works are small oil sketches painted on the spot around the streets of Edinburgh, using small 9 by 11 in. panels which also served as paint box lids to a home-made paint box, enabling him to be very mobile. This early training in the art of on the spot rapid oil sketching was put to good use when he moved to Paris. With his paint box he continued to amble the streets, the archetypal Flâneur, stopping at leisure to sketch the elegant figures that populated the multitude of crowded cafés and parks. Avenue de l’Observatoire was situated to the south of Jardins du Luxembourg, close to his lodgings.

The spontaneity of these oil sketches with their confident brushwork demonstrates Fergusson’s talent as an artist and also conveys much of the atmosphere and character of the city that he found so inspiring.