John Duncan Fergusson

Robert H. S. Robertson, Dunmore, Pitlochry, 1968;
Private Collection

Aberdeen, Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1970;
Manchester, Manchester City Art Gallery

The canvas is original. On close inspection, there is some extremely light surface dirt in places. Otherwise in good condition, clean and ready to hang. Ultraviolet light reveals a tiny fleck of retouching to the extreme upper left corner and a couple of spots to the lower left corner. Held in a simple black painted wood frame with minor scuff marks in places.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In the 1920s Fergusson was particularly interested in pure landscape, free from figures or man-made structures, in which the raw beauty of nature is presented in a style clearly derived from the work of Cezanne, in which colour and form are paramount. In his masterpiece, Les Grands Arbres au Jas de Bouffan, which hangs in the Courtauld Gallery and is illustrated opposite, Cezanne rejects convention, seeking not to replicate the superficial appearance of the landscape but to express what he described as a "harmony parallel with nature" through a new language of painting. Samuel Courtauld's conversion to the art of Cézanne came in 1922 when he visited an exhibition at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London entitled The French School of the Last Hundred Years. He wrote later of his epiphany, "at that moment I felt the magic, and I have felt it in Cézanne's work ever since". Cezanne's masterful ability to create an impression of movement and energy was of huge influence to the Scottish Colourists and in particular Fergusson, whose exploration of rhythm was sustained throughout his career. The Rocky Glen was almost certainly executed during the same sketching trip in 1922 that Fergusson painted Craig Coinach (sold in these rooms, 5 September 2001, lot 1372) the very same year that all eyes, including those of Samuel Courtauld, were directed towards Cezanne.