Luxembourg Gardens

The Luxembourg Gardens and its habitués provided popular subjects for both Peploe and Fergusson who lived nearby. Fergusson's many oil and pencil sketches of children with their nannies, couples strolling and single figures relaxing were often made during afternoon visits. Peploe's oil sketches from about 1910, the year he moved to Paris with his wife Margaret, are painted with an unusual freedom. He had been studying the works of van Gogh and Othon Friesz, both of whom he knew in Paris, and other artists' brushwork and use of colour. Here he uses the oil paint boldly in the modern French style, the green or purple on the orange. In addition his signature is confidently applied in bright red onto a cool background.

E.C.