Scottish Paintings and Sculpture Sale 22nd May 2014

 

Sale No. 409 Scottish Paintings and Sculpture This is our newest sale for Lyon and Turnbull and it incorporates amazing Scottish Artist from Allan Ramsay right the way forward to Alberto Morocco. Lot 8 ALLAN RAMSAY (SCOTTISH 1713-1784) HALF LENGTH PORTRAIT OF LORD JOHN MURRAY (1711-1787) 76cm x 63cm (30in x 25in) Estimate: £20000  - 30000           Lot 18 ROBERT GEMMELL HUTCHISON R.B.A., R.O.I., R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1860-1936) TENDING THE STOVE Signed, oil on board 23cm x 13cm (9in x 5in) Estimate £3,000-5,000   I have to say my favourite in the sale is...     Lot 33 BESSIE MACNICOL (SCOTTISH 1869-1904) IN THE PARK 16.5cm x 11.5cm (6.5in x 4.5in) Estimate: £3000  - 5000   A great example of her typical bonneted ladies. This one in particular is very important as it is illustrated in the Bessie MacNicol book.   Anyway I am rushing to get this post done, check out the rest of the sale at   http://www.lyonandturnbull.com/asp/searchresults.asp?pg=2&ps=25

J D Fergusson Seminar, 20th March 2014. National Galleries of Scotland

Last Thursday I went through to Edinburgh for a seminar on one of the most successful and well known Scottish Artists. He was one of four artists from Scotland known together as the 'Scottish Colourists'. J D Fergusson was born in Leith in 1874, travelled all over the UK and France to eventually setting in Glasgow in 1939.

Fergusson painted landscapes and various other subjects but latterly he turned to his stylised female form for which he is best known. (Previously shown in an earlier blog entry). The seminar was more about his life and work as an artist, his relationship with Anne Estelle Rice and then Margaret Morris. His connections with other noted members of the art world of the time - most notably the 'Toshies' Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh.

The day was held in he Hawthornden Lecture Theatre and was hosted by curator Alice Strang. She has been the mastermind behind the 'Colourist Series' that has so far looked at S J Peploe, F C B Caddell and now J D Fergusson. Speakers were invited to talk around the subject of Fergussons art, his life, career, social circles and how he was influenced by the people around him.

Jonathan Blackwood an indépendant art historian and curator gave a lecture on 'Fergusson as a Sculptor-Painter'. He went onto explain that not only was Fergusson painting such fascinating pictures but he was creating art in the third dimension. His sculptures were not only well crafted but very stylised in design and form. He showed his three dimensional works within his two dimensional flat works which was unheard of.Blackwood went to to say that Fergusson was always trying to convey movement through the female form using foliage and colour his funicular modernism techniques were ahead of their time.

Alice Strang then gave a lecture on his group of Portsmouth landscapes. These are a set of landscapes done during the war years where Fergusson managed to get himself positioned as a war time artist (unofficial) so as not to conscript and have to fight. These were completely new ground for Fergusson and let him draw and paint huge machinery in a completely different setting to the streets in Paris or his indoor studio!

It has been said that Portsmouth docks saved Fergusson from active service and if any of the readers knew him they wouldn't be surprised. He was incredibly vain, perfectly turned out and always loved getting attention and posing for photographs. In some ways he was very selfish not to go to war but he put it down to his political views 'sitting on the fence'

Charlotte De Mille from the Courtauld Institute of Art gave a lecture on 'Fergusson's Bergson' which was lengthly and strayed slightly into academia and philosophy. Followed by Richard Emerson formerly of the National Trust for Scotland gave a great account of Fergusson and Meg's relationship with the Mackintosh's and the rest of the art world in Chelsea at the time.

The seminar was a fantastic and interesting day and I would urge anyone who hasn't been to Modern Two to see the Colourist Series:J D Fergusson exhibition to go!

J D Fergusson (1874-1961)

As part of their Scottish Colourist series The National Galleries of Modern Art, Edinburgh, have a J D Fergusson exhibition running until June 15th. As the artist spent a great deal of his later life in Glasgow (Clouston Street) I felt it appropriate to appreciate his work. I put together a little exhibition in Lyon and Turnbull's Glasgow office and Gallery on Bath Street. I borrowed fifteen works from private lenders and created a wonderful show for the month of February. I had examples of landscapes, female portraiture, conte drawings, sculpture and watercolour.

Here is a press cutting from the exhibition. It is myself pictured with 'Eastre, Hymm to the sun' (1924). This is probably one of J D Fergussons most iconic works. It's made of polished brass and was modelled in 1924. The actual casting didn't take place for a few years due to expense but since the original it has been recast in 1972 and 1991 and was used as a catalyst for fundraising for the Fergusson Gallery in Perth. 

One of the stars of the show was the small 6"x9" 'Pont Des Arts, 1910' Paris scene. These little J D Fergusson works are often much more desired than his later stylised female forms. These were painted early on in his career when he was living quite a bohemian lifestyle in the Paris cafe scene. He would sketch at the lunch table and then take a board outside and produce wonderful oil paintings 'en plein air'

Laterally J D Fergusson was best known for his stylised depiction of ladies, generally their head and shoulders, illustrated below in 'Blonde in the South'. His inspiration was  taken from his long periods of time spent in the South of France, predominantly Antibes. The face of the girl is quite simple and very flat on the canvas, her eyes have little definition but overall the image is very effective. As you move further down the female form she blends into the foliage around her and one is not too sure whether she is wearing a dress? 

I very much enjoyed curating this little exhibition and I hope the 250 that viewed it did too! I'm already working towards my next exhibition which will be 'Mackintosh and The Glasgow School'. If you haven't already been through to the Edinburgh J D Fergusson show it is well worth a trip!

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourists-series-jd-fergusson