Day 60
J D Fergusson
Many of you will have heard of the Scottish Colourist J D Fergusson, but did you know that he was born, and spent his early years in Leith?
On the 60th anniversary of his death on the 30th January 1961 Leith For Ever takes a look back at his life and career.
John Duncan Fergusson was born on the 9th March 1874 in 7 Crown Street, Leith. His family were Gaelic speaking wine merchants, originally from Pitlochry. The eldest of 4 children, Fergusson initially thought he would become a naval surgeon, and began studying medicine at Edinburgh University. It wasn’t long however before he switched his vocation to become an artist instead.
Finding the art tuition at The Trustees Academy (now Edinburgh College of Art) too rigid for his taste, he soon decided to learn from his peers, and began travelling to Spain, Morocco, and most influentially, Paris where he moved in 1907. There he was introduced to the work of french artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet among others. And then Henri Matisse and the Fauvists, who were to influence the greater part of his career. It was also in Paris that he met his wife, and life time collaborator Margaret Morris.
They returned to live in Glasgow in 1939, thereafter splitting their time between Scotland and France until Fergussons death in 1961.
“His art is a deep and pure expression of his immense love of life. Endowed with a rare plastic feeling, almost sculptural in its quality. He joined with it an exceptional sense of colour, outspoken, ringing colours, rich and splendid in their very substance.”
Fergusson’s name is often linked to 3 other Scottish artists who were also in Paris around the same time - Francis Cadell, Leslie Hunter and Samuel Peploe. While their work varies greatly the common use of bright vibrant colours combined with the influence of Scottish painting styles led to them being collectively grouped as the Scottish Colourists in the 1940’s.