Silver Jonquils, (1905), Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow.
Oil on canvas laid on board, 27 x 31 cms
Fergusson started experimenting with the genre of still life in around 1902. This early example is one of a group in which the style is very similar to that of the fellow Colourist, Peploe. Having chosen to focus on an elegant arrangement of silver, glassware and flowers, Fergusson captures the interplay of light on the diverse surfaces with fluid, expressive brushwork. The limited range of colours set against a dark background is enlivened by thoughtfully placed highlights, attesting to an appreciation and affinity with Manet's technique.
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland
Dieppe, 14 July, (1905), National Galleries Scotland.
Oil on canvas, 77 x 77 cms.
This canvas is one of Fergusson's largest and most ambitious of the period. The style is heavily reminiscent of Whistler's firework Nocturne paintings, not only in its subject, but also in the exquisite kaleidoscopic colours set against a gloomy leaden background. A retrospective exhibition of Whistler's paintings - which Fergusson may well have attended - was staged in Paris and London in 1905. The male figure dressed in grey with his back to the viewer, standing on the left, represents Peploe. The quest to capture the ambience and atmosphere of a moment frozen in time is an Impressionist urge, with which Fergusson is clearly engaging.
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland
In the Café d'Harcourt, Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 40.5 cms.
Fergusson described the energy and attraction of the hours spent in the cafés of Montparnasse and Montmatre; 'Further down the Boul Miche was the wonderful Café d'Harcourt, where they had a lively Hungarian band ... for me the greatest attraction was the girl frequenters. They were chiefly girls employed by dressmakers and milliners and wore the things they were working at, mostly too extreme from a practical point of view, but with that touch of daring that made them very helpful - they were a great help to me...we always came down to the d'Harcourt after dinner to make sketches of these charming girls, who were quite pleased to be drawn and didn't become self-conscious or take frozen poses' ('Memoires of Peploe' in Scottish Art Review, 1962, vol. 8, no. 3).
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland
A Montmatre Restaurant, Private Collection.
Charcoal with watercolour, 48 x 56 cms.
In the early years of the twentieth century Fergusson produced illustrations of café life for an American magazine. During his time drawing at the Pre-Catalan Restaurant, Closerie des Lilas and Café d'Harcourt he mingled with writers such as John Middleton Murray and Katherine Mansfield, and artists such as Matisse, Derain, Delauney and Dunoyer de Segonzac.
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland
Silver Jonquils, (1905), Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow.
Oil on canvas laid on board, 27 x 31 cms
Fergusson started experimenting with the genre of still life in around 1902. This early example is one of a group in which the style is very similar to that of the fellow Colourist, Peploe. Having chosen to focus on an elegant arrangement of silver, glassware and flowers, Fergusson captures the interplay of light on the diverse surfaces with fluid, expressive brushwork. The limited range of colours set against a dark background is enlivened by thoughtfully placed highlights, attesting to an appreciation and affinity with Manet's technique.
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland
Dieppe, 14 July, (1905), National Galleries Scotland.
Oil on canvas, 77 x 77 cms.
This canvas is one of Fergusson's largest and most ambitious of the period. The style is heavily reminiscent of Whistler's firework Nocturne paintings, not only in its subject, but also in the exquisite kaleidoscopic colours set against a gloomy leaden background. A retrospective exhibition of Whistler's paintings - which Fergusson may well have attended - was staged in Paris and London in 1905. The male figure dressed in grey with his back to the viewer, standing on the left, represents Peploe. The quest to capture the ambience and atmosphere of a moment frozen in time is an Impressionist urge, with which Fergusson is clearly engaging.
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland
In the Café d'Harcourt, Private Collection.
Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 40.5 cms.
Fergusson described the energy and attraction of the hours spent in the cafés of Montparnasse and Montmatre; 'Further down the Boul Miche was the wonderful Café d'Harcourt, where they had a lively Hungarian band ... for me the greatest attraction was the girl frequenters. They were chiefly girls employed by dressmakers and milliners and wore the things they were working at, mostly too extreme from a practical point of view, but with that touch of daring that made them very helpful - they were a great help to me...we always came down to the d'Harcourt after dinner to make sketches of these charming girls, who were quite pleased to be drawn and didn't become self-conscious or take frozen poses' ('Memoires of Peploe' in Scottish Art Review, 1962, vol. 8, no. 3).
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland
A Montmatre Restaurant, Private Collection.
Charcoal with watercolour, 48 x 56 cms.
In the early years of the twentieth century Fergusson produced illustrations of café life for an American magazine. During his time drawing at the Pre-Catalan Restaurant, Closerie des Lilas and Café d'Harcourt he mingled with writers such as John Middleton Murray and Katherine Mansfield, and artists such as Matisse, Derain, Delauney and Dunoyer de Segonzac.
© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland