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Details
- Date
- 1920s
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 76.3 x 66.0 cm stretcher; 100.5 x 90.3 x 3.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed verso canvas, grey paint "J D Fergusson". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1956
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 9205
- Copyright
- © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth and Kinross Council, Scotland
- Artist information
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John Duncan Fergusson
Works in the collection
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About
John Duncan Fergusson was a leading 'Scottish colourist', along with Samuel Peploe, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell and George Leslie Hunter. Self-taught, and at the vanguard of British artists who absorbed new developments in French painting, Fergusson transformed his style while living in Paris in the early 20th century. The French Fauvist artists, including Henri Matisse, were particularly influential on Fergusson. He became increasingly experimental, adopting simplified outlines and pulsating brushwork to accentuate the bold colours in his painting.
'On the Cap' was painted after a trip to the French Rivera, a place of pleasure and pilgrimage for artists and tourists by the early 1920s. Evoking the glamour of the resort towns and the sparkling heat of the Mediterranean summer, Fergusson paints a vibrant landscape cradling the streamlined forms of the women. The picnicking pair sit frozen before the expansive view like a snapshot told through shimmering colour.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
Painting and sculpture by J.D. Fergusson, Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., London, Feb 1928–Feb 1928
Purchases and Acquisitions for 1956, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 Mar 1957–31 Mar 1957
Scottish paintings from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Nov 1981–06 Dec 1981
Landscapes of pleasure, from Monet to Hockney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Apr 2016–17 Jul 2016
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Bibliography
Referenced in 5 publications
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Renée Free, Art Gallery of New South Wales catalogue of British paintings, Sydney, 1987, 57 (illus.).
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Anne Kirker and Peter Tomory, British painting 1800–1990 in Australian and New Zealand public collections, Sydney, 1997, 79 (illus.). cat.no. 637
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The Lefevre Gallery, Exhibition of painting and sculpture by J.D. Fergusson, London, 1928. cat.no. 5
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Scottish paintings in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1981, (illus.). no catalogue numbers
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Editor Unknown (Editor), Scottish Art Review, Glasgow, 1960. Vol VII No. 3
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Provenance
Alex Reid & Lefevre, Ltd., 1928, London/England
Sir Eugene Goossens, pre 1956, Sydney/New South Wales/Australia, 1946 to 1957 Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Director of the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music.
Lawson's, 1956, Sydney/New South Wales/Australia, Purchased by the AGNSW from Lawson's Auctions 1956