The Ship Comes In

John Duncan Fergusson (1874 - 1961)

Oil on canvas

1931

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© The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall
  • About the artist
    John Duncan (J. D.) Fergusson is regarded as an important and influential artist in Britain in the twentieth century. One of a group of artists known as the Scottish Colourists, along with S. J. Peploe, F. C. B. Cadell and Leslie Hunter, he was one of the few British artists to witness and become involved in the great changes in painting and sculpture which originated in Paris in the first twenty years of the century. Fergusson was born in Leith, near Edinburgh, and briefly studied art at the Trustees Academy after giving up a career in medicine. Frustrated with the quality and style of the teaching there, he decided to teach himself, painting from life in the open air. From the mid 1890s he looked towards France for inspiration, making regular visits to Paris from 1895, eventually settling there in 1907. He became closely associated with the Fauve painters, becoming a Sociétaire of the Salon d’Automne, where the most avant-garde painters and sculptors showed their work. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Fergusson returned to Britain, settling in London with his long-time partner, the acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Margaret Morris. They then moved to Paris before returning to Britain and settling in Glasgow just before the outbreak of the Second World War. In the 1940s, Fergusson established the New Art Club, with Morris, to encourage Glasgow’s young artists and the New Scottish Group, which held regular exhibitions between 1943 and 1956. Fergusson continued to give young artists opportunities to pursue careers in the arts, encouraging them to avoid the establishment and challenge the status quo, until his death in 1961.
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  • Details
    Title
    The Ship Comes In
    Date
    1931
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 61.00 cm, width: 73.50 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from the Fine Art Society, March 1977
    Inscription
    verso tr: J D FERGUSSON -/-1931
    Provenance
    With Alexander Reid & Lefevre Ltd., London; collection of brewer and political activist Sir William McEwan Younger (1905-1992) of Fountainbridge; from whom purchased by the Fine Art Society, London, in March 1977; from whom purchased by the Department of the Environment in March 1977
    GAC number
    13122