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Lot Essay
Mademoiselle O captures the space of in-between moments, the paint’s fluidity a luxurious display of his art. A woman turns away, her gaze brushing over us but not quite catching our eye. The blur of motion becomes the blur of oil paint. Painted while living in Paris with his friend and fellow Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe, the work transports the viewer back into the smoke-filled cafés of Montparnasse.
Fergusson moved to Paris in 1907 and there he met Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and André Derain, while he would later say that Édouard Manet and Claude Monet were the ‘painters who fixed our direction’ (J.D. Fergusson, quoted in, M. Morris, The Art of J.D. Fergusson, 1974, p. 40). In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Paris during the 1900s, artists from across the world worked next to each other in garrets and bars.
Mademoiselle O represents a modern woman, vocal, at ease and self-confident. Fergusson observes her, but she has no need for his approval. Already she appears to be looking beyond him towards something else. This perpetual motion was a signifier of urban modernity, where nothing seemed to stand still, while the halo of black and grey paint which surrounds her large-brimmed hat stands in for the smoky darkness of an interior environment. On her hat is attached a rose, composed of a thick swirl of red and creamy pink paint, while a few flicks of green indicate leaves. The woman’s lips, drawn apart to reveal her teeth, are a slightly darker shade of rouge. She wants us to make a comparison between the flower and her, yet she is no wallflower.
Fergusson represents the new ways that women inhabited public spaces in 1900s Paris, unafraid to be unnoticed but not ceding their own self-possession. In the present work, Fergusson matches these social changes with his sophisticated brushwork, where colours seep between each other while still being under control. At the woman’s throat is a flash of green, amidst curls of blue, white and pink. Is it a necklace or a brooch? Fergusson’s art shows the limits of vision itself while revelling in its beauty.
Fergusson moved to Paris in 1907 and there he met Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and André Derain, while he would later say that Édouard Manet and Claude Monet were the ‘painters who fixed our direction’ (J.D. Fergusson, quoted in, M. Morris, The Art of J.D. Fergusson, 1974, p. 40). In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Paris during the 1900s, artists from across the world worked next to each other in garrets and bars.
Mademoiselle O represents a modern woman, vocal, at ease and self-confident. Fergusson observes her, but she has no need for his approval. Already she appears to be looking beyond him towards something else. This perpetual motion was a signifier of urban modernity, where nothing seemed to stand still, while the halo of black and grey paint which surrounds her large-brimmed hat stands in for the smoky darkness of an interior environment. On her hat is attached a rose, composed of a thick swirl of red and creamy pink paint, while a few flicks of green indicate leaves. The woman’s lips, drawn apart to reveal her teeth, are a slightly darker shade of rouge. She wants us to make a comparison between the flower and her, yet she is no wallflower.
Fergusson represents the new ways that women inhabited public spaces in 1900s Paris, unafraid to be unnoticed but not ceding their own self-possession. In the present work, Fergusson matches these social changes with his sophisticated brushwork, where colours seep between each other while still being under control. At the woman’s throat is a flash of green, amidst curls of blue, white and pink. Is it a necklace or a brooch? Fergusson’s art shows the limits of vision itself while revelling in its beauty.