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Lot Essay
The outbreak of the First World War brought Fergusson back from Paris to London, where he rented a studio flat at Redcliffe Road in Chelsea. From there he could be close to Margaret Morris, and a weekly club at her theatre exposed him to the British avant garde, including Augustus John, Jacob Epstein, Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound. Contact with these artists provided a sense of continuity with the vibrancy of the bohemian art scene that he had left behind in Paris.
Of particular importance to his work at this time was Margaret Morris’s pupil Kathleen Dillon, who Fergusson described as ‘a very good-looking, charming and intelligent girl … naturally I wanted to paint her and she posed for my ‘Simplicity’’ (J.D. Fergusson, quoted in M. Morris, The Art of J.D. Fergusson, Glasgow and London, 1974, p. 103). In July 1916, Fergusson went on to paint Dillon in Rose Rhythm (private collection), a dramatic portrait made distinctive by her hat that ‘was not merely a hat, but a continuation of the girl’s character, her mouth, her nostril, the curl of her hair – the whole character – like Burns’s love is like a red, red rose’ (ibid).
In June that year, Dillon posed for the present work, and shortly after Fergusson also made a sandstone carving of her, called Summer: Head of Woman (The Fergusson Gallery, Perth and Kinross Council). In both the painting and sculpture Dillon’s hair is replaced by a cascade of flowers and foliage which frame her face. This sumptuous and sensuous decoration, painted in a harmony of bold colour in the present work, conveys Dillon as a figure of fertility and abundance, reiterated by the painting’s title. It is interesting that Fergusson does not reveal his sitter’s identity in the title, instead choosing one which provides her with a more eternal and universal presence.
Summer was exhibited at Connell Gallery in May 1918 alongside Poise, also painted in 1916 (sold in these Rooms on 19 November 2014, lot 12, for £638,500). In June 1918 Colour Magazine included a major review of the exhibition, and featured Summer on the front cover. By the exhibition it was already owned by Captain John Ernest Crawford Flitch (1881-1946), and it has remained in his family until now.
For further works from the Flitch collection please see Fergusson’s Portrait of Margaret Morris and early still life Fleurs (lot 179-180) in the Modern British & Irish Art Day Sale on 27 June 2017.
Of particular importance to his work at this time was Margaret Morris’s pupil Kathleen Dillon, who Fergusson described as ‘a very good-looking, charming and intelligent girl … naturally I wanted to paint her and she posed for my ‘Simplicity’’ (J.D. Fergusson, quoted in M. Morris, The Art of J.D. Fergusson, Glasgow and London, 1974, p. 103). In July 1916, Fergusson went on to paint Dillon in Rose Rhythm (private collection), a dramatic portrait made distinctive by her hat that ‘was not merely a hat, but a continuation of the girl’s character, her mouth, her nostril, the curl of her hair – the whole character – like Burns’s love is like a red, red rose’ (ibid).
In June that year, Dillon posed for the present work, and shortly after Fergusson also made a sandstone carving of her, called Summer: Head of Woman (The Fergusson Gallery, Perth and Kinross Council). In both the painting and sculpture Dillon’s hair is replaced by a cascade of flowers and foliage which frame her face. This sumptuous and sensuous decoration, painted in a harmony of bold colour in the present work, conveys Dillon as a figure of fertility and abundance, reiterated by the painting’s title. It is interesting that Fergusson does not reveal his sitter’s identity in the title, instead choosing one which provides her with a more eternal and universal presence.
Summer was exhibited at Connell Gallery in May 1918 alongside Poise, also painted in 1916 (sold in these Rooms on 19 November 2014, lot 12, for £638,500). In June 1918 Colour Magazine included a major review of the exhibition, and featured Summer on the front cover. By the exhibition it was already owned by Captain John Ernest Crawford Flitch (1881-1946), and it has remained in his family until now.
For further works from the Flitch collection please see Fergusson’s Portrait of Margaret Morris and early still life Fleurs (lot 179-180) in the Modern British & Irish Art Day Sale on 27 June 2017.