In The Sunlight

Artist John Duncan Fergusson (Leith, Scotland, 1874 - 1961)

Date1907

Mediumoil on canvas wax/resin lined onto blind stretcher

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 43.3 cm, Width: 37.7 cm
Frame: Height: 60.2 cm, Width: 55 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1951 with income from the Webster Bequest.

LocationOn Display - Gallery 18

Object numberABDAG002189

Keywords

About MeJ.D. Fergusson had studied the work of the Impressionist painters and looking back on the early part of his career, he claimed that it was artists such as Manet and Monet who had fixed his artistic direction. However, in this painting he also demonstrates an alliance with younger French artists, the group of painters around Matisse who came to be known as the Fauvists.

Of all the Scottish Colourists, Fergusson was perhaps the most closely involved in the artistic excitement of Paris in the 1900s. He spent the summer of 1903 touring France and settled in Paris in 1905. In that same year, in the introduction to an exhibition, he wrote that he was "....trying for truth, for reality through light". In this portrait he captures the effect of the startlingly strong light of mid-day. The woman's face is bleached of its natural colour and the shadows cast on the face are painted in iridescent green. Her shoulders and dress are dissolved in the dancing, dazzling light.

ADOPT AN ARTWORK. This artwork is available for Adoption. To find out more please email AAGMSupport-Us@aberdeencity.gov.uk
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Fergusson was one of four artists who would become known as the Scottish Colourists. More than the others, he was involved in the artistic excitement of Paris in the 1900s.

Exhibitions

Gallery 18 - People & Portraits